



THREE RIVERS, 

















































































































The Sheffield HandCar. 


Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern R. R., Spirit 
Lake, Iowa. 

Sheffield Velocipede Car Co., Three Rivers, Mich. 

Gentlemen: I consider the Sheffield Hand Car the 
most perfect in every respect I ever saw, and far ahead of 
any car I ever used. 

It is exceedingly light running, and easy to handle, and 
so constructed it is very strong for so light a car. The only 
objection I ever heard was that it was too light a car to be 
durable, but I claim that to be an entire mistake; we all 
know what a heavy lift it is to get one of the old style, big 
heavy cars off the track, and we paid little attention to it; 
would bang it off almost any way, injuring the car more in 
that manner than any other. 

Now your car is so light that two good men can put it off 
readily and not strain the car in the least, and every section 
foreman knows that there is more wear and tear on a hand 
car taking it off and putting it on than any other way. Now 
if a man has a nice top buggy, he would not use it like he 
would a big wagon, nor should he use your car like he 
would one of those man-killers. Another thing, when run¬ 
ning he should not allow the men to jump on or jerk the 
levers, as a good, steady pull and gradual bearing down 
will produce more speed. Also when running the dump or 
push car it should be attached to hand car, so that the lat¬ 
ter will not keep bumping up against the frame, which is 
one of the won>t strains a hand car receives. When it is 
set off it should be on level ground if possible, but if not, 
any wheel tha does not have a bearing should be properly 
blocked up. Oil often, but only a few drops in a place. 
Put 5 8d nails in the 5 tubes where you oil the running gear; 
they keep out the dirt and are easily removed. Give your 
car a thorough cleaning every spring and fall, and you will 
always have a good car and one you can get there with. 

Truly yours, H. Carr, Section Foreman. 


The above speaks for itself. Manufactured only by 



Hand Ears, Push Ears, UelnEi'perie Ears, 
Stand Pipes, nr Wafer Enlumns, 
and Eut-nuf Switches; 







THE 


RACKMAN 


ELPER 


Second Edition, 

Revised and Enlarged, Nearly 100 Pages Added, With New 
Illustrations and Tables. 


P Pocket Sompamon 

FOR 

Trsusk: 0 P©r@FFi@Fi 0 ©©fio r©illy, 


It T 1 ’reata on A\ore than 

300 Different Subjects 

3=2,e lxtixxg- to Track "Work, -witlfcx Rules, TaTcles 

a.xxd. Xll-u.stxa.t3.oxxs- 


/S jt BOOK OF t|EFEt|Et(CE FOIf SECTION IS 

Superior to any Book Heretofore Published. 

/f d u } 

J.'Kindelan, Roadmaster, 7 c 





M 


/VViiehell, 


goafh Can^ota. ■ 




Price, $1.50. 














COPYRIGHT, 1891 

BY 

J. KINDELAN. 





MITCHELL, SOUTH DAKOTA, 

The Mitchell Printing Co. 

1891. 







/ 

























PREFACE. 


I can no better introduce the Second Edition 
of the Track Man’s Helper to the reader, than 
with the opening lines of my first preface. 

The main object of the author in writing this 
book is, through its agency, to assist young or 
inexperienced men who work on track repairs or 
construction, to become the equals of track fore¬ 
men who have had more experience and a wider 
field to work in, and thereby make the track ser¬ 
vice more efficient, and save roadmasters and 
other officers from the necessity of continually 
instructing inexperienced men on every subject 
relating to track work. 

That there is a necessity existing, for such a 
book is admitted by every good trackmen, and I 
have received many letters from prominent track¬ 
men, and other railroad officers throughout the 
United States, who all agree in the opinion ex- 


VI 


PREFACE. 


pressed, that all trackmen should be supplied 
with a book of instructions, which would ad¬ 
vance their knowledge of theoretical and practi¬ 
cal details of construction and track mainte¬ 
nance quicker than such knowledge can be 
gained by actual experience. This would fit 
them for doing all work in a practical manner, 
with less inconvenience to themselves and in a 
way that would be more satisfactory to the com¬ 
pany by preventing waste or loss which is 
common when the men are ignorant of their du¬ 
ties. The time of roadmasmrs, supervisors, and 

others, is often so fully tak^n up with other duties 
that they seldom have tiniior opportunity to 

give full instructions to all the men working un¬ 
der them in a manner th; t would insure their 
thorough efficiency as good reliable trackmen. 

Of course, after a certain amount of time has 
elapsed since a man has entered the service, his 
natural aptitude for gathering knowledge along 
with what instructions he receives, will make 
him a good average trackman, and familiarize 
him with the rules of the road and his other du¬ 
ties, but unless he has had the benefit of a wide 
, field of experience and a very thorough training, 
he seldom becomes so expert as to be able to do 
in a proper manner many kinds of work with 
which he is unacquainted, but which he may be 
called upon to do at any time. 

To help fill this want of the trackman, the 
writer published the first edition of this bcok, 




PREFACE. 


Vll 


which I hope has proved to be what its name in¬ 
dicates, a helper for trackmen. 

I fully realized how difficult a task it would be 
to write a book which would be accepted by even 
a majority of the trackmen of the country, but 
to accomplish anything, a beginning must be 
made, and as I had a practical education, from 
the shovel up, I thought I could offer something 
that would at least assist the ambitious young 
trackman seeking knowledge of his profession. I 
deemed it my duty also to put into book form 
what little of practical knowledge I possessed, if 
for no other reasons, than to show the importance 
of the track, in relation to the other railroad depart¬ 
ments, and assist in bringing more uniformity, in¬ 
to the methods of doing track work on the dif¬ 
ferent railroads. 

The book was not without it’s share of errors 
and shortcomings, but it has been well received 
by the trackmen of the country. In fact, it had a 
much better reception than the writer had antici¬ 
pated, and the many letters I have received from 
railway officers and roadmasters, co nmenting 
favorably on the work, have encouraged me to 
publish this Second Edition and to add to the old 
work as much valuable matter as was possible, 
which would be consistent with present day prac¬ 
tice. 

Before closing I wish to make a few remarks 
about the practical training of trackmen. It is 
of the greatest importance that railroad compan- 



Vlll 


PREFACE. 


ies employ none but the best and most expert 
trackmen for roadmasters, supervisors or fore¬ 
men, because on these men depends in a great 
measure the successful operation of the road. 
The track and roadway being the most important 
and costly department to maintain, it offers su¬ 
perior advantages for these men to display what 
talents they possess in economically keeping up 
a first class track, and educating the laborers to 
perform their duties in a thorough, practical man¬ 
ner without waste or loss to the company, and 
with the greatest degree of safety to the trainmen 
and the public. 

I believe the best way to produce good, practi¬ 
cal trackmen, is by educating them along with 
what knowledge they possess, or have gathered 
from experience, and I believe the best aid to ac¬ 
complish this end would be the distribution 
amongst the men of instructions in book form, 
covering all the theoretical and practical details 
of their work according to the best methods now 
in practice. This would cost the companies but 
a small amount separately and the results would 
repay them many fold. 

The history of track maintenance from the be¬ 
ginning up to the present date, shows a state of 
affairs existing which would not be tolerated in 
any other business. With only a few exceptions, 
little if any effort has ever been made by the 
railroad companies to aid their men to gain a 
technical as well as a practical knowledge of 




PREFACE. 


IX 


their profession; in fact an entirely opposite 
course has been pursued in most cases. 

The civil engineers and such officers as have 
charge of the laying out, or direction of con¬ 
struction work, have been too widely separated 
from those in charge of the practical end of the 
work, and as a consequence, the trackman has to 
shift for himself and pick up his knowledge by a 
slow and tedious process, which often results in 
: great injury to the company which employs him; 
and it very often happens that the men who hold 
a superior position above him, know so little 
about the details of his work that thev are not 
qualified to correct his errors. It cannot be de¬ 
nied that to construct and properly maintain a 
first class track, is both a science and a trade that 
requires its share of energy, skill, intelligence 
and ability in just as great a degree as any other 
important profession, but owing to the rapidity 
with which new construction has been carried on 
in this country, together with the very limited 
opportunities which some trackmen have for 
gaining a thorough knowledge of their business 
there are many now working on railroads who 
could not be numbered in the first class. It 
would be well, I think, if the different railroad 
companies attached more importance to the ne¬ 
cessity which exists for adopting some system of 
educating their trackmen to a higher standard of 
excellence. 

If by the publication of this book I have laid 




X 


PREFACE. 


one more stone in the arch which would span 
the gulf of prejudice and support all good track¬ 
men in a common effort for the welfare of each 
other, and the upbuilding of their profession, I 
have accomplished enough, and I sincerely hope 
that what little I have added to the track litera¬ 
ture now in existence may only be the beginning 
of something better and more worthy. 

Yours Truly, J. Kindelan. 

In the preparation of this Second Editon of 
the Trackman's Helper, I have been ably aided 
by Mr. H. W. Seib, C.E. of Clarence, New York; 
and also assisted by Mr. T. H. Curtis, C. E. of New 
Haven, Connecticut and Mr. D. Sweeney, R. M. 
of C. K. & N. R. R. Bellville, Kansas. 

J. K. 



CONTENTS. 


NEW ROAD. 


CHAPTER I. 

i. New Road—2, Track Laying—3, Track Laying Machine 
—4, Have Tools Ready—5, Track Laying Tools and Ma¬ 
terial—5, Tie Bedding—7, Omit Tie Bedding—8, Good 
M in at the Front, a Surfacing Gang—9, Locating Joint 
Ties—10, Laying the Rails—11, Expansion and Contrac¬ 
tion—12,Heat and Cold. Expansion Table—13, Transfer¬ 
ring Material—14, Mixed lengths of Rails—15, A Short 
Rail for curves—16, A Tie Under Joints—17, When laid 
in a Sag — 18, Change of Line— iq, Good Side Tracks— 
20, To Stop Track from Creeping-—21, Making Connec¬ 
tions—22, Short Pieces of Rail—23 The Steel Car—24, 
Lining New Track—25, Track Line—26, One or More 
Steel Cars—27, How Constructed—28, Track Laying 
Gauge—29, Cattle Guards—30, List of Track Tools for a 
Section—31, Locating Wagon Crossings—32, Where to 
Spike Plank—33. A Common Plank Wagon Crossing—34, 
A Standard Highway Crossing. 

Spiking and Gauging— Paragraphs 1 to 10. 


SPRING TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER II. 

I, Spring Track Work—2, Washouts— 3, Repairing Track 
—4, On Long Sections Ballasted With Earth—5, Dressing 
Mud Track—6, Lining old Track—7, Bolts That are Too 
Tight—8, Removing old Track Bolts—9, Changes of 
Temperature—10, Line of Bridges— 11, Repairing Bridges 
12, The Ends of Bridges 





Xll 


CONTENTS. 


13 to 2i, Ditching—14, Width and Shape of Ditches— 15, 
Slope of Ditches, Fig. 1—16, Grade of Ditches—17, 
Cleaning out Ditches, Fig. 2-3—18, A Ditching Rule—19, 
Track Drainage—20, Culverts and Bridges—21, Grading 
Cuts. 


SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER III. 

i, Summer Track Work-2 , Track Ties—3, Futting New 
Ties Under the Track—4, Select Your Joint Ties—5, Fin¬ 
ish as You Go—6, Distributing New Ties—7, Make the 
Worst Places Safe First—8, Ties Under Joints—9, Esti¬ 
mating New Ties for Repairs—10,Counting the Bad Ties— 
11, Wide Spaces—12. Remove Bad Ties When Ballast¬ 
ing—13, Twisted Ties—14, Ties at Highway Crossings— 
15, Remove the Bark—16, Old Ties—17, Average Life of 
Ties—18, Tie Account for a Year. 

1, The Cutting of Weeds —2, Weeds on Heavy Grades 
—3, To Lessen Weed Cutting. 

1, Ballast, Fig. 5, Showing Cross Section Gravel Ballast¬ 
ed Track—2, Surface Levels, Fig. 6—3, Before Ballasting 
Track—4,When to Ballast, Fig. 7—5, Ballasting—6, Rais¬ 
ing Track—7, Raise Both Sides—8, Solid Centers—9, High 
Places—10, Uniform Tamping—11, Dressing Ballasted 
Track—12, A Day’s Work—13, Refuse Ballast in Cuts— 
14, Have the Track Ready—15, High Raising—16, Gravel 
Required to Ballast a Mile of Track—17, Level Track in 
Yards—18, How to Level Yard Tracks—19, Gravel Pits— 
20, Gravel vs Weeds. 


FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


CHAPTER IV. 

i, Turnouts, Fig. 8—2, Laying Switches—3, Split or Point 
Switches, Figs. 9 and ic—4, To Change a Stub to a Split 
Switch—5, Description and Table 1—6, Description and 
Table 2—7, Frogs, Fig. 11-—8, Laying Frogs in Track— 
9, Length of Frogs—10, Guard Rails—11, If there is no 
Standard—12, Switch Timbers—13, To Cut Switch Ties 
the Proper Length—14, Tamping Switch Ties—15, Putting 
in Three Throw Switches—16, A Derailing of Switch, 
Fig. 12—17, Turnouts From Curves—18, To Reach a Side 
Track with a Reverse Curve Behind the Frog, Fig.13—19, 
Round House Tracks—20, Another Method—21, Fig. 14, 
Cross over Tracks—22, Table of Distances Between 
Frogs in Crossover Tracks—23, Parallel Tracks—24, How 
to Ascertain the Kind of Frog Needed, Fig. 15—25, Spur 
Tracks—26, To Straighten Rails in Track. 









CONTENTS. 


xm 


27, Laying New Steel—28, How to Relay Iron or Steel— 29, 
Average Life of Iron or Steel Rails—30, Even or Broken 
Joints—31, Heavier Rails Wanted, Figs. 16 and 17—32, 
Effect of Heavy Locomotives and Cars on Track. 


CURVED TRACKS. 


CHAPTER V. 

i, Radius and Degree of Curves, Fig. 18—2, Curve Ra¬ 
dius—3, Method of Staking or Laying out a Side Track 
without the Aid of Transit or Chain, Fig. 19—4, To Lay 
Out a Four Degree Curve—5, To La} Out a Curve by 
the Eye, Fig. 20—6, Radii, Ordinates, Tangent and Chord 
Deflections, Table in—7, To Find the Radius of a Curve 
Required to Reach- any Desired Object, the Point of 
Curve being known, Fig. 21—8, Method of Laying a Spur 
Track Curve, F'ig. 22—9, Three Methods of Finding the 
Difference in Length Between the Inner and Outer Rails 
of a Curve—10, Broken or Staggered Joints, Tables 
IV and v. 

11, Elevation of Curves —12, Elevate for the Greatest 
Speed—13, Sharp Curves and Elevation—14, When Speed 
of Trains Does not Exceed 15 Miles per Hour—15, The 
Curve on Passing Tracks, etc.—16, Table of Ordinates, 
Fig. 23—17, How to Apply it—18, Compound Curves—19, 
Frequent Changes—20, Curve Track Gauges—21, Laying 
the Rails on Curves—22, To Curve a Rail Properly ( 
23, The Curve Approach—24, Printed Information for 
Foremen—25, Guard Rails on Curves—26, Between 
Reverse Curves—27, Putting the Elevation in Curves. 

28, Rules For Lining Curves, Fig. 24—29, Effect of Lo¬ 
comotives and Car Wheels on Track—30, Elevation Bal¬ 
ance—31, Liability of Derailment—32, Reduced Speed— 
33, A Curve in a Sag—34, Care of Curves—35, Lining 
Curves—36, Straight Rails in Curves—37, Number of 
Rails Wanted on Curves—38, Foremen Should Know the 
Degree—39, A Good Curve—40, Dangerous Car Wheels 
on Curves. 


FALL TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER VI. 

i, Fall Track Work —2, Cleaning off the Right of Way 
—3, Raising up Sags in Track, Surface Fig. 25—4, Nar¬ 
row Embankments—5, Haul Out Material from Cuts— 
6, To Remedy too wide an Opening at the Joints. 







XIV 


CONTENTS. 


7, Building Fences— 8, Board Fences— 9, Fence Tables— 
10, Weight of Nails—11, Weight of Fence Wire—12, A 
Day’s Fabor. 


WINTER TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER VII. 

i, Winter Track Work —2, Shimming Track—3, Heaved 
Bridges and Culverts—4, Report Amount of Snow—5, 
Snow on Side Tracks—6, Snow in Cuts—7. Flanging 
Track—8, Opening Ditches and Culverts—9, Snow Walls 
10, Snow Fences. 

1, Bucking Snow —2, Two Focomotives—3, _A Piece of 
Steam Hose—4, Length of Runs—5, Preparing Drifts. 


GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

1, Boarding Accomodations —2, Discharges—3, Ride ov¬ 
er on the engine—4, Following-trains—5, Accidents—6, Go 
over the track—7, Raise up the wires—8, Extremes of tem¬ 
perature—9, Track jacks—10, The spirit level—11, Surface 
bent rails—12, Low joints—13, Examining track—14, 
Scarcity of repair rails—15, Changing battered rails—16, 
Extra work—17,Train accidents—18,At wrecks—19,Water 
stations—20, Trespassers—21, Protect fences—22, Rails of 
different heights—23, Expansion blocks—24, Switch 
stands—25, Absent from duty—26, Emergency rails— 27, 
Extra men—28, A prompt reply—29, Get acquainted with 
your section—30, The proper way—31, Working new men 
—32, Clear water passages—33, Neat station grounds— 
34, Expansion on switches—35, Look over yards—36, Lips 
on steel switches—37, Bent switch rails—38, The moving 
rail switches—39, Battered switch rails—40, Ties under 
moving rails—41, Bent splices—42, Punch, or bore rails— 
43, Lining disconnected track—44, Ordering tools or ma¬ 
terial—45, Keep men’s time correct—46, Duplicate time 
books—47, Track material account—48, Printed forms— 
49,Section foremen’s report—50, Shipping track tools—51, 
Distance to set out danger signals—52, Keep signals al¬ 
ways with you—53, Time cards and rules—54, Note of 
flags—55, Stop signals—56, Look out for signals—57, Ob¬ 
structing the track—58,Replacing signals—59,Injured sig¬ 
nals—60,Complying with the rules—61, Location of whist¬ 
ling posts and signs—62, Trains disrespect of signals—63, 
Look out for trains—64, Always be prepared—65, Hand 
cars and tool house—66, Telegraph office reports—67, Re- 







CONTENTS. 


xv 


moving hand cars from crossings— 68, Throwing switches 
—69, Lea ving hand cars on track—70, Loaning tools to 
others—71, Different varieties of ties—72, Care of tools— 
73, Hand cars, etc— 74, Shovels—75, Cold chisels—76, 
Use of claw bars—77, Lining bars—78, Rail punches—79, 
The place for tools—80, Cutting steel—81, The ballast in 
yards—82, Execute promptly—83, Protect against fire— 
84, The curving hook— 85, Report stock killed— 86, Dam¬ 
aged by fire—87,Be careful of material—88, Pick up scat¬ 
tered material—89, Do first what needs to be done—90, 
How to do work—91, Foremen on duty—92, Adopt, the 
best method. 


WRECKING. 


CHAPTER IX. 

3, Wrecking— 2, On the ground—3, To square a car 
truck—4, When a center pin cannot be used—5, With¬ 
out an engine—6, Cars off on ties—7, Oil the rail—8 
Broken switches—9, Car trucks in the ditch—10, To 
connect broken chains,Fig. 28—n, To turn a car truck 
on soft ground—12, To put a wrecked gravel plow 
back on the cars—13, Sliding a car on a tie—14, Load¬ 
ed wrecked cars—15,—Broken center pins—16, Pulling 
on a chain or rope—17, A dead man—18, Wrecked en¬ 
gines—19, How to work at a wreck. 


MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


CHAPTER X. 

i, W t ork Train Service —2, To whom responsible—3, 
Track inspection—4, Standards adopted by the Road- 
master’s Association of America—5, Standard rails—6, 
Standard track joints—7, Nut locks, track bolts and 
spikes—8, Longer rails—9, Premiums for track men—10, 
Hints to section foremen—n, Train yourself—12, Section 
record—13, Average day’s work for one man. 

14, Tables — Track Bolts —15, Spikes—16, Number of 
spikes—17, Tons of rails required for one mile of track, 
Table—18, Number of cross ties required for each mile of 
track—19, Length of rail and number of joints, 
splices and bolts for each mile of track—20, 
Weight per yard, per 30 foot rail and tons per mile, Table 
—21, Lumber table—22, Cubic measure—23,Square meas¬ 
ure—24, Surveyors measure—25, Long measure—26, 
Speed table for trains—27, Table of wages on a basis of 
10 hours per day—28, Table of wages one cent to $2.00 for 
any part of 30 days. 










NEW ROAD. 


EW ROAD, 


CHAPTER i. 

i, New Road—2, Track Laying - —3, Track Laying Machine 
—4, Have Tools Ready—5, Track Laying Tools and Ma¬ 
terial—6, Tie Bedding—7, Omit the Tie Bedding—8, Good 
Men at the Front, a Surfacing Gang—9, Locating Joint 
Ties—10, Laying the Rails—11, Expansion and Contrac¬ 
tion—12, Heat and Cold, Expansion Table—13, Transfer¬ 
ring Material—14, Mixed Lenghts of Rails—15, A Short 
Rail for Curves—16, A Tie L T nder Joints—17, When Laid 
in a Sag—18, Change of Line—19, Good Side Tracks— 
20, To Stop Track From Creeping—21, Making Connec¬ 
tions—22, Short Pieces of Rail—23, The Steel Car—24, 
Lining New Track—25, Track Line—26, One or More 
Steel Cars—27, How Constructed—28, Track Laying 
Gauge— 29, Cattle Guards—30, List of Track Tools for a 
Section—31, Locating Wagon Crossings—32, Where to 
Spike Plank—33, A Common Plank Wagon Crossing- 
34, A Standard Highway Crossing—Spiking and Gaug¬ 
ing, Paragraphs 1 to 10. 

i. A good railroad should be complete in all 
respects; track should be full bolted, full spiked, 
well ballasted, surfaced, lined, and guaged, and 
nothing omitted in its construction which would 
contribute toward making it a perfect and safe 
track. A poor track no more deserves to be 
called a railroad than a shanty does to be called 
a house, and track men who are in the habit of 









2 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. - 


doing poor work with the means at hand to do 
better, never learn how to do good work. 

TRACK LAYING. 

2. The best dirt ballasted track can be made 
when laying it, by bedding the ties to a level 
surface on top before putting on the rails. To 
lay track this way, the company’s engineers must 
first set level stakes by which to bed the ties, 
and these stakes should be close enough togeth¬ 
er for a sixteen foot straight edge to reach from 
one stake to the next. To have the engineer 
set level stakes so close together that a straight 
edge will reach from one stake to the other is 
contrary to the common practice, but it is a 
much better way in so much that the increased 
labor of the engineer is fully compensated for in 
having the whole tie bedding gang under the 
control of one foreman. This method also does 
away with the necessity of using sight boards 
and dividing up the men to sight in the lead ties 
between level stakes fifty or one hundred feet 
apart. The work is also more accurate when 
finished, if the straight edge can reach a level 
given with the engineer’s instrument, than it 
would be, if the levels were sighted in by the 
average track laborer. 

TRACK LAYING MACHINES. 


3. Track laying machines have been used to 





NEW ROAD. 


3 


some extent when building extensions on some 
of the railroads. When track is laid with them 
the ties and rails are run out along the material 
cars to the front, on rollers in some cases and in 
others an endless belt carries out the material 
along the sides of the cars. Only one or two 
rails of track are laid at a time, and partly spiked, 
then the train moves up and the same operation 
is performed again. Economy in the force of 
men necessary to lay track with these machines, 
together with the saving effected by not having 
to haul the ties by team to the front, are the 
chief claims put forward in their favor. But 
the amount of track laid each day must always 
be limited to what can be bolted and spiked safe 
for trains between the forward moves of the 
machine, seldom exceeding a mile and a half in 
a day, and oftener one third less. In a good 
country to lay track where ties can be hauled 
ahead by team, and men are plenty, much bet¬ 
ter results can be obtained without track laying 
machines, if it is desired to rush the track laying. 

HAVE TOOLS READY. 

4. Every good track man knows the tools 
which his men should use, and before starting 
out to lay track on a new road the boss track 
layer should make requisition for all the neces¬ 
sary tools. These tools should all be loaded in¬ 
to a car and shipped direct to the point where 
work is to be commenced. Every thing should 






4 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


be in readiness to make a good beginning, before 
the men are brought upon the ground. Many 
awkward and serious delays have been caused by 
the foreman in charge neglecting to see to the 
arrangements in time for working his men prop- 
erlv. 


TRACK LAYING TOOLS AND MATERIAL. 


5. Hand cars. 1 

Steel cars. 3 

Push cars. 2 

Shovels, R. R.150 

Picks. 50 

Lining Bars. 12 

Claw Bars. 12 

Tamping bars. 12 

Nipping bars.24 

Cold chisels.24 

Rail punches. 6 

Chopping axes. 6 

Hand axes. 6 

Spiking hammers. 42 

Bush scyths and snaths, 

each. 3 

Hand saws. 6 

Adzes. 6 

Track guages. 12 

Spirit levels. 6 

Tape lines. 6 

Nail hammers. 3 

Monkey wrenches. 3 

Lanterns, red. 3 

Lanterns, white. 3 

Water pails. 6 

Tin dippers. 6 

Oil cans. 2 

Oilers. 3 

Gallons of oil. 2 

Nails.1 keg 10 penny 

Nails.1 keg 20, 40, 60 

Pick handles.24 


Adze handles. 6 

Axe handles. 6 

Maul handles. 36 

Red flags. 12 


Sledges, i 61 bs. each. 3 

Grind stones. 1 

Track wrenches. 24 

Iron tongs, pairs. 3 

Rail forks. 6 

Expansion shims.200 

Switch locks. 6 

Rail drills. 2 

Torpedoes.4 dozen 

Track jacks. 4 

Rail benders. 2 

Covered water barrels... 2 

Track levers. 2 

Chalk lines. 2 

Files. 6 

Crosscut saws. 2 

Curving hooks. 2 

Post hole diggers. 2 


Tie poles, 30 feet long. .. 2 

Tie line, 1,000 feet long.. 1 

Set double harness. 1 

Set single harness. 1 

Set double and single 

trees. 1 

Wagons. 1 

Scrapers. 1 

Horses or Mules. 2 

Tool boxes. 2 


I he above list of tools will do to supply an av¬ 
erage gang of 100 track layers with a surplus to 

































































NEW ROAI). 


5 


equip extra men if required, or replace tools out 
of repair or broken, until supplies ordered can be 
got to the front. The accomodations for track 
laying should be about as follows: 

One supply and office car. 

One kitchen car. 

Two dining cars. 

Three sleeping cars. 

Where track laying is done at a long distance 
from the base of supplies a blacksmith with forge 
and tools should accompany the outfit. 

TIE BEDDING. 


6. The work of tie bedding consists in placing a 
straight edge in a level position over the top of 
loose ties lying on the grade, and bringing up 
each tie to a uniform surface under the straight 
edge, just as it should lie in track under the 
rails. Thin ties should have dirt or ballast 
thrown under them and be settled to the correct 
level. The bed under thick ties should be dug 
out and the dirt removed sufficiently to bring 
the tie down to the level of the other ties. One 
straight edge should be provided for every two 
men of the tie bedding gang. If there are plenty of 
men in the tie bedding crew they can do most of 
the filling between the ties, this part of the work 
receiving attention in proportion to the speed 
with which the rails are laid. The surfacing 
crew gives the finishing touches after the track 




6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


is laid. If the tie bedding is done properly, the 
track will be in good condition every night for 
trains to run over it, as far as it is finished, without 
any danger of injuring the rails, and a much 
smaller crew is required to surface behind the 
track layers. When it is intended to ballast the 
track with dirt from the embankment, the ties 
should always be bedded before laying the rails, 
for the reason that the grade is seldom or never 
a smooth surface to receive the ties; moreover, 
the ties, no matter how well selected, are of dif¬ 
ferent thickness, and it is well known that light 
iron or steel rails, laid on loose ties on a poor 
grade, will be kinked and damaged considerably 
by trains running over the track before it is sur¬ 
faced up smooth and level. Another good point in 
favor of tie bedding is that the rails can be laid 
much faster than over loose ties and the spiking 
can be done better and with less labor. 

OMIT THE TIE BEDDING. 

7- If it is intended to ballast track with cin¬ 
ders, gravel or stone, as fast as it is laid, the tie 
bedding should be omitted'in order to have the 
full width of the grade to depDsit the ballast up¬ 
on, but at the same time the ballasting should be 
kept finished up close behind the track layers to 
obivate the danger of spoiling rails. 

Very few trackmen realize the necessity or 
make much effort to protect the rails from be- 



NEW ROAD. 


7 


ing kinked or surface bent, when laying track, 
and a large part of new track throughout the 
United States bears evidence of their careless¬ 
ness. 

All railroad companies are more liberal when 
constructing than they are when the road is in 
operation, and if a company lays their own 
track the man in charge of the work should see that 
it is done well, even if the cost is greater. It pays 
in the end. When the work of constructing a 
railroad is poorly done it is never finished after¬ 
wards. 


GOOD MEN AT THE FRONT. 

* 

8. When building new road the man in 
charge of the track laying should endeavor to 
secure good sober men to work at spiking and 
laying the rails, because on the front men in a 
great measure depends the amount of track laid 
every day. The spikers and iron men should be 
paid better wages than the other men, not alone 
on account of the work, but to encourage them 
to do their best, and also, that you may readily 
secure picked men to fill their places whenever 
needed. All the men at track laying should be 
well organized; each man should have his par¬ 
ticular work to perform. The men should not 
be allowed to work promiscuously, changing 
from one place to another. One foreman should 
have charge of the iron men, another of the 






8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


spikers, and a third of the surfacing crew, all 
subject to the boss track layer. It is poor econ¬ 
omy to try to lay track without any of the three 
foremen mentioned, as is sometimes done, be¬ 
cause, although a good track layer may be able 
to oversee a considerable number of men, he 
cannot look after the details of the work in its 
different branches, and give it the required at¬ 
tention, without the assistance of these foremen 
except where the work is done with a small 
gang of men. 


A SURFACING GANG. 

When laying track it is always best to 
keep at least a small surfacing crew behind to 
recruit from, if you are short of men at the front 
and any extra men at the front should be put to 
surfacing. 

The amount of supplies taken out each day 
should be in proportion to the number of men 
you are working, and only enough should be 
taken out at one time for a good half day’s 
work, because much more than that amount 
would only be in the way and delay the work. 
Where the ties for a new track are hauled out 
along the grade by teams it is always best to let 
the work out by contract. This will save the 
necessity of hiring and watching the teamsters 
and insure the work being done without delay. 





NEW ROAD. 


9 


LOCATING JOINT TIES. 

9. Every tracklayer should have two men to 
carry a measuring pole the correct length of a 
rail for locating the joint ties, ahead of the rails. 
These men should also space the ties on each 
side of the joint wherever necessary. They 
could also adze twisted ties and bed down ties 
which were too high. The joint ties should not 
be located very far ahead of the rails, because 
there is liable to be variation in the distances, 
and the measurements taken with the pole should 
be corrected from the end of the rails occasion¬ 
ally. The track laying is delayed and the ties 
are seldom as well spaced when this work is left 
to the spikers. 


LAYING THE RAILS. 


. 10. A construction foreman should see that 

no new rails be laid in a new track before all 
kinks and crooked places in the rails are straight¬ 
ened. It is a common fault of track foremen 
when in a hurry to throw down all iron or steel 
just as it comes to the front, regardless of any 
kinks that may have been put in the rails while 
in transit, or in dumping them off cars. Many 
light weight rails are irreparably damaged in 
this way, and after such rails are put in a track 
they are seldom, if ever, made perfect again, as 




10 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


section foremen very seldom have the necessary 
amount of help, or spare time to do what could 
have been done in a very short time before the 
rails were laid. 

EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION. 

ii. Track foremen, when laying iron or 
steel rails, should be very particular to give the 
proper space at the joints for expansion. Avoid 
leaving the joints too close in cold weather, 
or too much open in warm weather, either of 
which causes much trouble afterwards. 

As soon as the weather becomes warm, rails 
which were laid in the track with very close 
joints, during colder weather, begin to expand 
and increase in length, as the heat increases, un¬ 
til the opening between the ends of the rails is 
entirely closed. After this, as there is no further 
room for expansion, the track is forced out of 
line, and kinks are put in the shoulder of 
light weight rails. This extreme expansion is 
very dangerous for fast trains, and in many cas¬ 
es has been the cause of wrecks. The effect of 
expansion of the rails is most noticable on the 
line of track which is only partially ballasted and 
filled between the ties, or where track has been 
laid down without any particular ballast. 




NEW ROAD. 


i r 


HEAT ANI) COLD. 

12. Contraction is a shrinking or shortening 
up of the rails, and is caused by cold weather. 
The contraction of the rails increases with the 
severity of the cold, and by this process, the 
opening in the joint between the rails is enlarged. 

Sometimes in the winter the contraction is so 
great that where the rails were not properly 
laid the track is torn apart, joint splices are 
broken, and openings between the rails are in¬ 
creased from three inches to a foot, rendering 
the track extremely dangerous for trains, unless 
discovered in time by the trackmen and repair¬ 
ed. 

Too much space at the joints also affects the 
wearing qualities of the rails, the opening at the 
joint being so large that the car wheels batter 
their ends, and they wear out and have to be 
taken out of service much sooner than rails of 
the same quality if laid with the proper spacing 
on another part of the road. 


EXPANSION TABLE. 


The following table shows the proper space 
to leave between the ends of the rails when 
laying track at any temperature: 

TEMPERATURE. AMOUNT OF EXPANSION. 

At 90 degrees above zero.1-16 of an inch. 






12 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


At 70 

u 

u u 

. .. 1-8 

At 50 

i i 

U 4 4 

...3-16 

At 30 

4 i 

4 4 4 4 

. .. 1-4 

At 10 

i i 

4 4 4 4 

. . . 5-16 

At 10 

4 4 

below “ ... 

• ..3-8 


With slight variations this table will do for 
any weight of rails now made. 

Expansion shims should be made of narrow 
flat iron or steel, and bent so that one end would 
rest on top of the rail when in place. The shim 
could thus be easily removed and used again, af¬ 
ter a piece of track was laid, and all the bolts 
then tightened up on the joint fastenings. 

A ten-penny common steel nail, if bent at 
right angles, makes a cheap and handy expansion 
shim when no others are provided. It may be 
used at almost any temperature above the freez¬ 
ing point, by reversing the end and flattening 
the head of the nail. Expansion shims should 
not be allowed to remain between the ends of the 
rails after a piece of track is laid and the joint 
fastenings have been made secure. 

Care should be taken when laying old iron or 
steel rails, to make the same allowance for ex¬ 
pansion as when laying new rails. 

TRANSFERRING MATERIAL. 

13. Owing to the scarcity of flat cars on rail¬ 
roads, box cars or stock cars are often used to 
ship rails to the front when track laying. All 









NEW ROAD. 


13 


rails which come in this manner have to be 
transferred to flat cars at certain points, in order 
to facilitate handling them before laying at the 
front. The transfer of rails from box or stock 
cars can best be accomplished by switching empty 
flat cars between the loaded cars and attaching 
framed rollers to the end doors of the loaded 
cars to run the rails out upon. A hollow iron 
roller can also be used to place under the rail 
within the loaded car, and one upon the flat car 
where it receives the rail. If this is done a large 
quantity of rails can be transferred in a day with, 
a small crew of men. The transfer foreman 
should keep posted as to the quantity and different 
kinds of material wanted at the front, and he 
should make every effort to forward the supplies 
so as not to delay the track laying. He should also 
keep an accurate and detailed account of all 
track material, or other supplies which passes 
through his hands. 

MIXED LENGTHS OF RAILS. 

14. When it is possible to avoid it mixed 
lengths of rails should not be used when laying 
track. The cost of repairing such a track is al¬ 
ways greater than a track laid with rails of a 
uniform length, and when the rails begin to wear 
out there is a large amount of material wasted 
and time lost by replacing the battered rails from 
rails of a different length for repairing. When 



14 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


track layers find it necessary to get rid of a 
mixed lot of rails, the best place to lay them is in 
a side track, matching all rails of an equal 
length or height. When there is not room for 
mixed rails in side tracks, lay them in the main 
track close to or at a station; there the track is 
safer, and the section man can do the necessary 
repairing or changing of rails at less cost, and 
to better advantage than out on his section. 

A SHORT RAIL FOR CURVES. 

t 5. When laying rails around a curve, a fore¬ 
man should have on hand a few 29 foot or 29J 
foot rails, and put one in on the inside of the 
curve whenever it is necessary to square the 
joints, as the inside rail will gain on the outside 
rail in proportion to the degree of the curve. 

A TIE UNDER JOINTS. 

16. Wherever a rail joint comes in a track, 
no matter how short the piece of rail, or how 
long, there should always be a tie under that 
joint to support it. Suspended joints are knock¬ 
ed down out of surface easier than those sup¬ 
ported by ties, and are often the cause of broken 
rails, because there is so much spring in the 
suspended end of rails where splices get loose. 
Where angle bar splices are used, and where it 





NEW ROAD. 


iS 


is possible, and the splices are long enough, a tie 
should be placed under the center of the joint. 
All the short angle bar splices now in use on 
railroads will bend down with the joint and 
break, unless well taken care of and kept up to 
proper surface and the bolts tightened when 
they become loose. 

THE 46-INCH ANGLE BAR SPLICE. 

The 46-inch angle bar splice, bolted properly 
with bolts, elastic or spring nut locks, and spiked 
solidly through the slots in the splice to the 
track ties, presents at the present day the best 
practicable connection and support for the joint 
yet invented, and it will allow expansion and 
contraction of the rails, and prevent creeping, if 
the rails are laid with the proper spacing at all 
places. Spiking in a slot at the end of the rail 
flange does not prevent creeping of the rails, nor 
are short angle bar splices on two ties very 
effective. But with an angle bar 46-inches long, 
slotted and spiked and resting on three ties, you 
have a power greater than the other two meth¬ 
ods combined, and this will prevent the joint 
fastening from moving, while the rails may ex¬ 
pand or contract in the splices on account of the 
oblong bolt holes in the rail ends. Any device 
which proposes to control the expansion or con¬ 
traction can only be a subject for ridicule. 




i6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


WHEN LAID IN A SAG. 

17. When a foreman lays a piece of track in 
a sag which he soon expects to raise up to a lev¬ 
el surface, he can raise the track if the sag is not 
too deep without cutting the rails, by leaving the 
joints open as much as possible when laying the 
rails by keeping the bolts in the splices not too 
tight. Otherwise he will have to cut some of 
the lengths of the track, because the track in a 
sag is longer than when brought up to the level 
surface. 


CHANGE OF LINE. 
r 

18. In cases where a general change of line 
is made by moving a curve track inward several 
feet the foreman should have his men dig out all 
the material which is used for filling between the 
ties for the full distance covered by the new 
change in track line, so that the ties will not 
crowd against each other or injure the surface by 
raising up on top of the ballast. Before com¬ 
mencing to line the track, take out and set aside 
one rail length of the track in the middle of the 
curve. Then loosen up the track with a jack or 
lever bars and blocks. Start lining gangs at one 
or both ends of the curve and work toward the 
middle, moving the track toward the new line 
12 to 20 inches, or as far as it can be pulled 






NEW ROAD. 


17 


conveniently with one lining,without kinking the 
rails or splices. Continue thus until the opening 
in the middle of the curve is reached. Then go 
back and commence again as near the end of the 
curve as may be necessary, and work toward 
the middle as before. Repeat this process until 
the inside rail of the track has been moved be¬ 
yond the center stakes for the new line, bringing 
in both ends of the curve alike Then while 
part of the men are spacing and squaring the 
ties, and throwing in surfacing material, etc., go 
over the ground with a handy gang of 3 or 4 
men, and Line the track to the center stakes. 
Do not cut the rails to fill up the opening at the 
middle of the curve until all the lining of the 
track is finished. Otherwise the rails mav not 

j 

fit after all the lining is completed. Lining from 
the ends of the curve toward the middle always 
forces the track to move forward toward the 
opening, By moving the track a little past the 
center stakes with the first lining, and then throw¬ 
ing it outward to its place when finishing the 
work, prevents buckling or jamming joints to¬ 
gether and makes the track less difficult to handle. 
The latter operation stretches the track, and opens 
up joints that might otherwise have prov¬ 
ed too tight for conveniently maintaining a good 
line in the future. 

When the change of line is so great that the 
new line is some distance clear of the old track, 

it is sometimes a better policy to lay a new sec¬ 
tion of track throughout, than to try to move 




i8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


the old piece of track to the place with lining 
bars. 

GOOD SIDE TRACKS. 

19. It is a bad habit of some track foremen 
when putting in a side track to allow the work 
to be done in a careless manner. The track is 
surfaced poorly or not at all; rail joints are not 
square, nor are there ties under the joints except 
when they come there by chance, splices are 
loose on the joints, with one and two bolts in 
them; ties are under the track in all shapes, at 
some places one foot apart at others three or 
four feet. In fact, every thing seems to be done 
as slovenly as possible, because it is only a 
side track. This should not be the case. All 
work on side tracks should be as good as on the 
main track, for several reason; first, that train 
men may be able to do their work without 
accident to themselves or the company’s property; 
next, that grain men and others may be able to 
move a car when loading or unloading without 
having to call on every passing freight train to 
stop and switch it for them, and lastly, because a 
good smooth side track will save burning so 
much coal, since an engine can switch a greater 
number of cars more easily than on a rough 
track. The little extra expense of making a 
good track, when laying it, is well repaid in the 
course of time. 







NEW ROAD 


*<> 


TO STOP TRACK FROM CREEPING. 


20. The best method to hold iron or steel to 
keep it from creeping down grades or from run¬ 
ning ahead enough to throw track out of line or 
kink the rails, is to use the slot spikes in the 
splices. This can be done only where angle 
bar splices are used on joints. The advantage 
gained by putting the slot spikes in the splices 
instead of in the flange of the rail is that al¬ 
though the joint is held firmly in place, the slot 
spikes do not interfere with the contraction or 
expansion of the rails, and if the track is spiked 
and laid in this way and given the proper allow¬ 
ance for expansion, it will never give any trou¬ 
ble. 


MAKING CONNECTIONS. 

2i. At any time when laying rails on main 
track or side track, never make a connection 
with a piece of rail shorter than ten feet. When 
you see that only three or four feet of rail is 
necessary to connect the two ends of a piece of 
track, add the three or four feet to the length of 
the rail adjoining the space, cut two pieces of 
rail half the length of the total number of feet, 
and put them into the track to make the con¬ 
nection. 





20 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


SHORT PIECES OF RAIL. 

22. A piece of rail less than ten feet in length 
is of the most value to a railroad company when 
returned to the rolling mill. Except in cases 
where it is absolutely necessary to use short 
pieces of rail as at the ends of frogs, in the 
round house tracks, etc., the extra expense neces¬ 
sary to prepare them so that they will be perfectly 
safe in track, (safety is the main point to be con¬ 
sidered), will offset the difference in value between 
old and new rails of equal lengths. A track 
foreman can generally avoid making a short con¬ 
nection, especially when laying old rails, by se¬ 
lecting lengths of rail that will leave him i 5, 20 
or 25 feet of space for connecting, as any of the 
lengths mentioned can be cut from a good 24, 
26 or 30 foot lail that has been battered on one 
end. 


THE STEEL CAR. 

23. The men selected to work on the steel 
car in laying track should be strong, healthy, 
active men, all of whom speak and understand 
plain English. Men of different nationalities, no 
matter how good physically, should not be al¬ 
lowed to work together on a steel car. Where 
such is the case accidents are of common occur¬ 
ence and the work does not progress as well as 







NEW ROAD. 


21 


when the kind of men first spoken of are em¬ 
ployed to do the work. The foreman on a steel 
car should be a man of energy and experience, 
when possible to procure such a one, and he 
should be equal, if not superior, to his men phy¬ 
sically and intellectually. 

LINING NEW TRACK. 

24. When a new road is first laid the engin¬ 
eers put stakes along where the center of the 
track should be. These stakes are generally set 
about 100 feet apart, and a tack is driven in the 
top of each stake to show the correct center of 
the track. The man whose business it is to line 
the rails behind the track layers, always carries 
with him a small light wooden gauge with the 
center marked on it. The manner of lining new 
track is as follows: The track liner places his 
gauge on top of the rails across the track over 
one of the center stakes. . His men then lift the 
track to one side until the center mark on the 
gauge is directly over the tack in the top of the cen¬ 
ter stake between the rails. This part of the track 
is then allowed to remain in that position and 
should not be moved again. After the track 
liner has put the rails in position at two or three 
center stakes, he proceeds with his men to put 
the rails between these in a true line with them, 
which completes the work. Any carelessness on 
the part of the track liner in the matter of put- 





THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ting the rails in their proper place at the center 
stakes, is apt to cause trouble when the track 
has been surfaced, as it is often difficult for the 
trackman in charge of a section to get a perfect 
line on his track at places where the first track 
liner left swings in it, because numbers of the cen¬ 
ter stakes are lost or moved out of position,during 
the work of track laying. 

TRACK LINE. 

25. After a railroad track has been properly sur¬ 
faced the rails should be put in a perfectly true line. 
Few track foremen seem to give this part of the 
track work the attention that it deserves, and 
even on first class railroads it is seldom that any 
thing like perfection in the line of track is at¬ 
tained. Of what avail is all the other work 
done on a piece of track if it be not in good line 
and gauge? The surface may be perfectly level 
and smooth, but cars will ride badly over it at 
high rates of speed. The wheels following the 
crooked line and bad gauge, cause the cars to 
dance from one side to the other almost as badly 
as if the surface of the track were rough, espec¬ 
ially on curves, and a bad line or gauge will soon 
make a track rough, because the heavy rolling 
loads cause the wheel flanges to strike the rails 
with great force, where the line is irregular. 

; There is no excuse for bad line or gauge on track, 

. especially where it is ballasted or foremen raise 





NEW ROAD. 


23 


it up to surface it. All that is required is a little 
skill, a good, careful eye, and force enough to 
put the rails in place, all of which ought readily 
to be found on any section; while as a matter 
of fact, some of the track that we see, looks as 
if all three of the requisites mentioned were 
almost intirely lacking. 

A well lined section is the best indication that 
the foreman in charge of it thoroughly under¬ 
stands his business, because a good line cannot 
long be maintained without also having a good 
surface on the track. In order to preserve the 
line of track as originally located, and to enable 
the foreman to keep a true line on the rails, I 
would suggest that permanent stone monuments 
be set in the ground at convenient distances 
along the center of the grade of a double track 
railroad, or on one side of a single track, and 
that the top of each stone monument be chiseled 
square or capped with iron or steel so that a 
gauge may be tried at any time and show the 
correct distance between the monument and 
the nearest rail of either of the tracks. These 
monuments might also be made the standard 
from which to take levels when surfacing track, 
or when ballasting track out of a face, by having 
the grade levels marked and numbered on each 
monument; any of the figures on one monument 
designating the same level on all of them. 






24 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ONE OK MORE STEEL CARS. 

• 

26. When it is not intended to lay more than 
one mile of track per day, one crew and one 
steel car is sufficient. When it is necessary to 
lay from one and a half to three miles of track, 
two or more steel cars can be used to get mater¬ 
ial to the front, and a team of horses should be 
used after the second car is put on, to pull the 
load out and the empty car back. The regular 
steel car crew should never be taken from the 
front when two or three cars are used. They 
should only be required to bring back the empty 
car to meet the load, and turn the empty up on 
its side to let the load pass it. It is poor econo¬ 
my for track layers, when rushing the work, to 
have the steel car crew come back one half mile 
or more to load steel. 

HOW CONSTRUCTED. 

27. The steel car should be light, strong and 
compact, and made of the best material, so that 
it can carry a heavy load and at the same time 
be easily handled by the crew working it. The 
wheel’s tread should be at least eight inches wide, 
so that the car can pass over loose and uneven 
gauged track without leaving the rails. A load 
of rails with the car off the track often causes 
considerable delay. 



NEW ROAD. 


25 


TRACK LAYING GAUGE. 

28. 1 he gauge used to hold the rails in place 

ahead of the steel car should be made of one 
solid piece of iron with a lip in projection to 
come down on both sides of the ball of each rail 
of track. This kind of a gauge serves the double 
purpose of gauging the track, and of holding the 
loose rails in place until the car has passed over 
them. 


CATTLE GUARDS. 

29. For a good, safe cattle guard, the writer 
believes that an iron or steel surface cattle guard, 
which can be put in without excavating under 
the track to a greater depth than the bottom of 
the ties,and which will at the same time prevent 
cattle or other animals from coming upon or 
crossing it is just what the railroads need at the 
present time, and that if the proper kind is offered 
railroad companies would purchase them and put 
them in, to replace the old stone or timber 
structures which are commonly used. My chief 
objections to the common timber cattle guards are 
that those which are constructed by excavating a 
hole in the ground and spiking the rails along 
the top of a single stringer over this hole makes 
a trap for cattle to fall into, and that if a car 
wheel or truck is derailed before reaching one of 





26 


„ THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


them there is liable to be a very disastrous 
wreck. 

Cattle guards constructed on the same princi¬ 
ple with track or bridge ties along their tops only 
lessens the danger to some extent, because the 
ties, if not very close together are liable to break 
under the wheels, and if cattle attempt to cross 
such a cattle guard, which is often the case, they 
sometimes fall through, and in this position they 
are liable to wreck a train, and cannot extricate 
themselves without assistance. 

• I also think that an iron surface cattle guard 
can be put in and maintained at a less cost to the 
railroad companies than one made of timber 
and constructed in the usual way, and its use 
must result in economy, in keeping a good, 
smooth track at points where the pit guard 
would be heaved up by frost in the winter and 
require the service of section men to shim and 
repair it very frequently. 

LIST OF TRACK TOOLS. 


30. List of track tools for a section of 5 
miles, foremen and crew of 5 men,as recommend¬ 
ed at the Denver Convention of American Road- 


masters, Sept. 1889, by 
Tools: 

2 Adzes. 

1 Axe. 

1 Hand Axe. 

1 Box, tool. 

1 Buchet, water. 

3 Brooms. 

2 Bars, claw. 


the committee on Track 


1 Hatchet. 

2 Lanterns, white. 

2 Lanterns, red. 

1 Lantern Globe, white. 
1 Level, track. 

1 Level, boards. 

2 Levels, blocks. 



2 7 


NEW-ROAD. 


5 Bars, lining. 
i Bar, raising. 

6 Bars, tamping. 

12 Chisels. 

i Car, hand, 
i Car, push. 

3 Cans, oil. 

1 Can, water. 

2 Chairs. 

2 Dippers. 

1 Drill, ratchet. 

6 Drills. 

2 Flags, red. 

2 Guages, track, 
i Grind Stone. 

3 Grub hoes & Mattock. 
6 Handles, pick. 

i Handle, axe. 

2.Handles, adze. 

6 Handles, hammer. 

4 Hammers, spike, 
i Hammer, Sledge. 

i H ammer, napping. 


6 Picks, clay. 

6 Picks, tamping. 

1 Punch. 

2 Pad Locks. 

2 Rail tongs. 

6 Scythes. 

6 Scythe Snaths. 

6 Scythe Stones. 

6 Shovels. 

4 Shovels, scoops, 
i Saw, hand, 
i Saw, cross-cut. 
i Rail Saw for every 50 mis. 
1 Jim Crow for every 50 mis. 
12 Torpedoes. 

1 Track Jack. 

1 Tape line. 

1 Track Lever. 

2 Wheel Barrows. 

4 Wrenches, track. 

1 Wrench, Monkey. 

1 Water Keg. 


LOCATING WAGON CROSSINGS. 


31. In states where the law is such that the 
public has a right to use the section lines as 
public highways, is is a good policy for those in 
charge of building new railroads to have all the 
necessary grading done at such points as there 
is a probability of locating grade crossings in the 
near future. The work can be done with less ex¬ 
pense when the road bed is in course of con¬ 
struction than at any other time. 

WHERE TO SPIKE THE PLANK. 


32 . 


When locating public or private plank 




28 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


crossings on their sections, foremen should, 
whenever it is possible, spike down the plank at 
the center of a rail, because if the crossing is 
spiked down where a rail joint comes in the 
track, when the joint gets low it cannot be raised 
up to surface without removing the plank to do 
it, and for this reason is often neglected. 

A COMMON PLANK WAGON CROSSING. 

33. Seven three inch by ten inch plank will 
do for a common wagon crossing. One plank is 
to be used on each side of the track outside and 
spiked close up to the rails. Five plank are to 
be used in the center of the track, leaving a 
space for the wheel flanges next to the rails on 
the inside. About five inches of the ends of the 
crossing planks should be dressed off with the 
adze, leaving a slanting surface, which will en¬ 
able any objects which strike the end of the 
plank to pass over them without tearing the 
plank out of place. 

A STANDARD HIGHWAY CROSSING. 

34. A standard highway crossing on the C. 
M.& St. P. Ry., is made by using one plank 
along the outside of the track rail and only one 
plank along the inside, and at each end between 
the inside planks is spiked a short piece of plank 
forming a kind of box which is then filled with 




NEW ROAD. 


29 


earth, broken stone or ciders. This kind of 
crossing where it can be used saves considerable 
lumber and is both durable and economical. 
The C. R. I, & P. R. R., and some other roads 
use a track rail in some of their crossings, in¬ 
stead of the inside plank. This rail is laid on 
its side with its head against the web of the 
track rail, thus forming a channel for the wheel 
flanges to run in. It is bolted to the track rail 
near each end and its ends are then turned in 
towards the center of the track and all the space 
between both sides is then filled up level with 
broken stone or other material. This style of grade 
crossing has some advantage in being so easily 
kept in repair and not requiring the services of 
track men to clean the ice and snow from the 
flange way in the winter season. But the item of 
first cost is Considerably more than other cross¬ 
ings on account of the large amount of metal in the 
rail. 

The writer believes that it would pay to have 
a rail specially manufactured of a much lighter 
and slightly different pattern which would ac¬ 
complish the same results in every way as well 
as a track rail and thus remove the chief object¬ 
ion to this style of grade crossing which I think 
could be made the best and most economical of 
any of these here mentioned. 



3 ( > 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


SPIKING AND GAUGING. 

i. Track should always be kept full spiked 
and in perfect gauge. In order to keep it in 
perfect gauge, a gauge of the standard width 
should be used, and when track is spiked to 
gauge, the gauge should be - square across the 
track, about six or eight inches ahead of the tie 
spiked, and remain between the rails until the 
tie is spiked. The outside spike should not be 
allowed to draw the rail too tight on the gauge 
or to be driven loosely, either of which will af¬ 
fect the width of the track after the gauge is 
lifted. When gauge is tight, start inside spike 
first, when loose, the outside spike first. Bad 
gauging detracts from the looks of an otherwise 
good track, makes track easier to knock out of line 
and down below surface, and is also dangerous 
and the direct cause of numerous wrecks. To 
be driven properly a spike should rest upon its 
point almost perpendicularly, when receiving the 
first stroke, which if delivered right, will leave 
the spike perfectly straight up and down. The spik- 
er should then try to deliver each stroke in such a 
manner as not to draw the spike in any direction 
until about the last stroke,.rwhich should draw 
the head of the spike toward the rail and down 
to the flange, both at the same time. Care 






NEW ROAD. 


3 1 


should be taken never to strike the last blow on 
a spike too hard, as this either cracks the head 
or breaks it off, rendering the spike in either case 
useless. 


PULLING SPIKES. 

2. To draw a spike in frosty weather, or to 
draw a spike out of an oak tie at any time of 
year, tap the spike down on the head with a 
spike maul once or twice, before attempting to 
pull it out of the tie with the claw bar. In most 
cases there will then be no difficulty in pulling 
the spike without breaking it. Tapping the 
spike down with the maul loosens its hold on the 
wood of the tie and makes it easier to remove. 
If an opposite course is pursued and track men 
try to pull spikes without doing as above direc¬ 
ted, a great number of the spikes will break off 
under the head. 

WHERE TO DRIVE SPIKES. 

3. The spikes should be driven about two 
and one-half inches from the edge of a track 
tie. The spikes take a better hold in the wood 
of a tie, and support the tie under the rail better 
when driven thus. An oak tie will split open on 
the ends in frosty weather if the spikes are driv¬ 
en in the center of the tie. /The tie, so split, will 
rot much quicker, and will have to be removed 
from the track sooner than the tie which remains 




THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


whole. Another reason why the track spikes 
should be driven in the sides of the ties is because 
the wood in the center of most ties is softer and 
may be decayed, while as a rule, the sides of the 
ties are sound timber. 

GAUGING TRACK IN WINTER. 

4. Section foremen should make an effort to 
gauge all of the track in their charge once a year 
if possible. Early in the winter, and before gen- 
eral track work begins in the spring, are the best 
times to gauge track, because at such times, on 
northern railroads, there is generally less of oth¬ 
er work to be done than during the balance of 
the year. A section well gauged once can easily 
be kept in that condition ever after. 

5. Before commencing to gauge track out of 
a face, the foreman should get all the necessary 
tools in good condition, have ready two good 
spike mauls, two claw bars for pulling spikes, a 
good sharp adze for dressing a surface for the 
rail on the ties, two standard gauges, one for 
gauging the track and one for testing the gauge 
of track before pulling the spikes; also a good 
supply of track spikes and wooden plugs to put 
in the old spike holes. 

If there are any very bad places on the sec¬ 
tion, begin gauging these first, but if the average 
is the same throughout, it is best to work from 
one or both ends continuously, marking every 




NEW ROAD. 


33 


evening where you leave off work for the dav. 

When you arrive on the ground to commence 
work, take out all short kinks on the line side 
and spike the rads to the line, and have your men 
knock down all loose spikes on that side of the 
track before bringing the opposite side to gauge. 

The foreman should take one gauge and test 
all the track ahead of the men gauging, and 
mark all ties where spikes have to be pulled. 
Keep only enough spikes pulled" on the gauge 
side of the track to make it handy to adjust the 
rail to place ahead of the gauge, and have the 
track always ready to close up for trains to pass. 

Have one of the men move the rails to place 
ahead of the gauge with a lining bar, and do not 
try to draw the rail with the spike more than a 
quarter of an inch. 

Do not spoil or waste any of the old spikes 
that are fit to be used a second time, and if the 
old spikes are oily or greasy throw a little dirt or 
sand on the head of the spike when you tack it 
in the tie. This will prevent the spike maul 
from slipping off the spike when driving it. 
Measure the gauge and be sure it is of the cor¬ 
rect length, four feet eight and one-half inches, 
and if it is an iron gauge and the end lugs touch 
the joint fastenings, grind or file them off, taper¬ 
ing so that nothing but the rail ‘will touch the 
gauge when placed across the track. The exact 
amount of labor expended at gauging track 
should be charged daily on the work journal, and 



34 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


the foremen's time should be included in the 
cost when making estimates of the cost per mile 
of section. 

If the gauge of track on a section is not very 
bad, a foreman and two laborers will gauge an 
average of one sixth of a mile per day. Gauging 
and spike-lining a section of track well during 
the winter, besides improving the track at that 
time, will enable the foreman to put a first-class 
line on the whole section during the following 
summer, and will materially lighten his other 
work. 


LOOSE SPIKES. 

6. A section foreman should be particular to 
keep all loose spikes on his section driven down 
in the ties, and tight against the rails. The 
majority of the foremen are not so careful in this 
respect as they should be. Loose spikes in soft 
ties, where track is not level, leave the rail at 
that place liable to be turned over and cause a 
wreck. You cannot keep track in good line with 
loose spikes, and green men, tamping loose ties 
when surfacing, lose considerable time holding up 
the ties. These often spring up the center of 
the rail, spoiling the surface and making it neces¬ 
sary to go over the work a second time. 



NEW ROAD. 


35 


RE-SPIKING TIES. 

7. Whenever it is necessary to pull the spikes 
out of ties in the track, changing rails or at other 
repair work, and you find that the old spike holes 
in the ties will do for spiking the second time 
without changing the gauge of the track, do not 
use a fresh place in the ties to drive the spikes, 
but plug the old hole with a chip and drive the 
spikes as they were before pulling. Ties soon 
rot and break off under the rail where spikes 
have been driven in different places in the same 
tie, while the balance of the tie may be good, 
sound wood. 

TO KEEP TIES SQUARE ACROSS THE TRACK. 

8. All ties should be spiked in a position 
square across the track, especially when laying 
new track, which is to remain some time with¬ 
out being surfaced up or ballasted. The spikes 
should be driven in the ties in such a manner 
that they will hold the ties in place, otherwise 
the ties will be twisted out of their proper posi¬ 
tion and affect the gauge of the track. Spikes 
should be driven with both inside spikes, or the 
two outside spikes, on the same edge of the tie, 
whether ahead or behind. This prevents the 
ties from twisting out of square. 






THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


36 


TRACK NOT FULL SPIKED. 

9. When any side track or main track is not 
full spiked on the inside of the rails, the foreman 
in charge of it should examine closely all places 
where the ties have commenced to decay, and 
when he finds a double or full spiked tie rotted, 
should remove the inside spike in the rotten tie, 
and drive it inside the rail in the next single 
spiked tie. This is very important in the winter, 
or when the rotten ties cannot all be taken out 
of the track, because, where two full spiked 
ties are rotted close together, and the track is 
only half spiked inside the rails, the distance 
along the rails to where spikes are effective is 
from eight to twelve feet. 

This is one of the best arguments in favor of 
full spiking all track, but as a matter of economy 
side tracks might be excepted, beyond the switch 
leads. 


SPIKING BRIDGE TIES. 


10. Holes should be bored in bridge ties, 
along side where the flanges of the rails would 
come, for the track spikes to be driven into. 
The holes should be one-sixteenth of an inch 
smaller in diameter than the spikes used. Mak¬ 
ing the holes in the ties a little smaller than the 
spikes, allows the wood to close up the hol e 






NEW ROAD. 


37 


around the spike when driven, and gives the 
spike a more secure hold upon the tie than if the 
hole was bored the full diameter of the spike. 
There is always danger [of £ splitting' bridge ties 
when the track spikes are driven into them with¬ 
out first boring the holes, because the grain of 
the wood seldom runs lengthways of the ties, and 
the work of repairing can always be done easier 
where the holes have been ' bored for the track 
spike, especially in oak ties. 

I favor the generalise on railroads of a track 
and guard rail gauge combined, made by putting 
a lug or projection on one end of the gauge in¬ 
side the track rail. This lug should be the pro¬ 
per width to fit between the track rail, and 
guard rail opposite the point of the frog, in order 
to gauge the wheel channel to a uniform stand¬ 
ard on all switches. 



38 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


SPRING TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER II. 


i, Spring Track Work—2, Washouts—3, Repairing Track— 
4, On Long Sections Ballasted With Earth—5, Dressing 
Mud Track—6, Lining old Track—7, Bolts That are Too 
Tight—8, Removing" old Track Bolts—9, Changes of 
Temperature—10, Line of Bridges— 11, Repairing Bridges 
12, The Ends of Bridges—13 to 21, Ditching—14, Width 
and Shape of Ditches—15, Slope of Ditches, Fig. 1—16, 
Grade of Ditches—17, Cleaning out Ditches, Fig. 2-3 
18, A Ditching Rule—19, Track Drainage—20, Culverts 
and Bridges—21, Grading Cuts. 


1. When the frost is leaving the ground in 
the spring time, track foremen should remember 
to do all the little odd jobs which have been left 
over or neglected during the winter, on account 
of frost and snow. Following are some of the 
most important rules: 

Clean up the station grounds and tracks, and 
pile up neatly all track material or other mater¬ 
ial which may be scattered about the premises. 

Gather up all trash, cinders, old straw and 
manure from company stock yards, and haul it 
out to fill up low places or holes on the right of 
way, or burn it, if necessary. 



















SPRING TRACK WORK. 


39 


All switches and leads should be spiked into 
proper gauge and line, and battered rails replac¬ 
ed by good ones. 

Guard rails and frogs should all be examined, 
and any defects in them noticed and remedied, or 
new ones ordered to replace them. 

All track ties on hand should be loaded on cars, 
and distributed along the section, where they 
would be most needed in the track, to have them 
ready when the time comes for putting them in. 

All loose boards on snow fences should be nail¬ 
ed up, and right of way fences should be exami¬ 
ned and repaired, especially in low places or 
where they cross water courses. 

Loose plank in wagon crossings should be tak¬ 
en up and cleaned underneath, and ragged or 
split ends should be dressed with the adze, and 
then re-spiked to place. 

The approaches to all highway crossings should 
be filled up and fixed, so that teams would have 
no trouble in crossing the track. 

All fence posts, crossing signs, whistling posts 
and telegraph poles, should be put in correct 
position and tamped solid. 

Shimmed track should be watched, and very 
thick shims should be replaced by thinner ones 
as fast as the heaving goes down, and all shims 
should be removed from track as soon as it is 
possible to spike the rails to the proper surface. 

Go over the section and tighten up all loose 
bolts, putting on them nut locks or washers 



40 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


where necessary, and put in good bolts in place 
of broked ones. 

Look out (or soft places in your track, and re¬ 
pair to the best of your ability, notifying train 
dispatcher and roadmaster when any such places 
become dangerous, and make ditches in wet cuts 
to carry off the water, widening them or increas¬ 
ing their depth as the frost goes out. 

The different kinds of works mentioned above, 
if looked after now, will enable the track foreman 
to make much better headway when the rush of 
summer work begins. 

WASH-OUTS. 

2. The time of year is now at hand when 
sunshine, snow and rain, all combine to increase 
the quantity of water above the surface of the 
ground, and as the frost goes out of the ground 
but slowly, at best, there is always danger to a 
railroad from the accumulation of too much 
water at one place. This may damage the track 
by undermining or washing away its supports, or 
by loosening the earth on hillsides along the 
track, it may cause quantities of earth, stones, 
or trees to fall or slide upon the track. 

Section foremen should keep a sharp lookout 
for washouts at all points on their sections. 

Ditches should be opened up, and water-ways 
cleared of all obstructions, and all track, trestles, 
bridges and culverts should be examined every 




SPRING TRACK WORK. 


4i 


day without fail. Where there is liable to be 
any trouble, the section foreman should remain 
out with his men day or night, and do all in his 
power to keep the track safe, always remember¬ 
ing that upon the vigilance of himself and men, 
may depend the lives of trainmen and passen¬ 
gers. 

In case of a dangerous storm the foreman, if his 
section extends both ways from his headquarters, 
should send a man over the short end of it,with in¬ 
structions to reach the section limit as soon as 
possible, and to remiin there and use the neces¬ 
sary signals to Hag trains should he find any¬ 
thing dangerous on the way out. The foreman 
should go as rapidly as possible in the opposite 
direction towards the other end of his section, leav¬ 
ing a man a sufficient distance ahead of the first 
break or washout to flag trains following, in case 
they are able to get over the other end of the 
section safely. The foremen should note the lo¬ 
cation and dimensions of all places needing 
repair; but he should not stop to do any work 
until the end of the section is reached, and the 
men have each been posted to remain and flag 
trains for all the dangerous places found. 

The foreman should then go to the nearest 
telegraph office and report jointly to the road- 
master and train dispatcher, stating fully the 
condition of the track on his section, giving loca¬ 
tion and dimensions of all breaks in roadbed or 
track, bridge and culvert numbers, number of 



42 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


bents destroyed in bridges, and any other infor¬ 
mation which would be valuable as a basis from 
which to calculate the amount of material or 
force necessary to put the track into good con¬ 
dition. 

This will insure the safety of trains, and enable 
the train dispatcher to hold them at convenient 
points until the track is passable, and the road- 
master and bridge men will be prepared to get the 
work done without delay. 

After reporting the condition of your section 
you can go to work repairing small breaks at 
points where a large gang of men could not work 
to advantage, but do not call away your men 
who are bagging at dangerous places, until you 
are positive that there is no possibility of trains 
passing there, or the roadmaster has arrived with 
extra force to protect and repair such places. 

Instances have occurred where foremen have 
stopped to repair the first bad spot found, and 
allowed trains to run into other bad places on 
their section. It is always the foreman’s duty 
first to protect those dependent on him for safe¬ 
ty, and then to notify superior officers of the 
condition of their sections. If the whole of the 
track on your section is safe, send report to that 
effect so that trains will not be delayed by slowly 
feeling their way over it. 



SPRING TRACK WORK. 


43 


REPAIRING TRACK. 

3. When track is being repaired which has 
become rough or uneven, all low places should 
be brought up to surface and both rails on 
straight track should be level, and on curves the 
elevation should be uniform to suit the degree of 
the curve. How to find this degree, instructions 
are given on another page. 

ON LONG SECTIONS BALLASTED WITH EARTH. 

• • 

4. When a section is long and a foreman is 
allowed only a small force of men to keep it in re¬ 
pair, it is not a good policy to surface a track out of 
a face (as should be done when putting in gravel.) 
A section foreman, if forced through necessity 
to get up to surface a rough piece of track with 
a small force, can do so in a short time by ad¬ 
hering closely to the following instructions, 
which are only intended for section foremen with 
long sections, a track laid on clay, and a very 
limited number of men for help. For example, 
we will say a section foremen is allowed only 
four men on a ten mile section. Select the 
roughest part of your section, give one man a 
shovel, another the track lever or jack, keep 
these two men with you; the man with the 
shovel to dig block hole for lever, and assist in 
raising the low places wherever it is necessary. 



44 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


When you find a place that needs raising, 
stoop down and sight the rail. Take an esti¬ 
mate in your mind of how low the place in the 

rail is which you have sighted below the proper 
surface, also count the number of ties running 
each way from the lowest point. Then tell your 
two men to raise that part of the rail which is 
the lowest, and when it is up about four or five 
inches, or so high that dirt can be easily thrown 
under, take your own shovel and throw under, 
each tie the exact amount of dirt that you think 
is necessary to bring it up to the proper surface. 
To do this work properly, so that it will hold 
track up for some time, the dirt should be thrown 
under the ties a little at a time, and as far as it 
can be put toward the center of the track. Be¬ 
cause, if the dirt is thrown only under the ends 
of the ties, a hole is left under the middle of the 
tie inside of the rail, which will fill with water 
when it rains and become worse than before. 
But if the rules here laid down are followed out 
properly, a section foreman of ordinary intelli¬ 
gence, after a little practice, may become an ex¬ 
pert at this kind of work, and make as good a 
track as by tamping it in the regular way. A fore¬ 
man can get over about one quarter of a mile in 
a day, in good weather. It is best for a man 
who has never tried this method to practice on 
very low joints. As to the other two men of the 
four, they should be left to follow up, dressing 
the track, filling the block holes, etc. About 



SPRING TRACK WORK. 


45 


two hours before quitting time the foreman 
should stop raising, take the four men, and line 
up the piece of track which he has raised, leav¬ 
ing a perfect line on the line side; he should then 
let two men dress the center of the track, while 
the other two take a gauge and spike maul, and 
bring all crooked places in the gauge side to the 
proper line and gauge. After a section foreman 
has gone over his whole section in this way, the 
track will be greatly improved and will look as 
good as the average dirt surfaced road. Now 
supposing the foreman has got so far along with 
his work as to have his section all surfaced up 
in the aforesaid way, he can go back and pick 
up small sags wherever he can procure enough 
dirt to bring them up to surface. These sags should 
be surfaced out of a face and tamped and allow¬ 
ance made for track settling. When a rail on 
one side of the track is sighted the section fore¬ 
man should use the spirit level to bring the op¬ 
posite rail, which is raised, up to surface. 

DRESSING MUD TRACK. 

5. When you fill in track with dirt, have your 
men throw the material in the center of the 
track. It is much easier to dress it then, than 
if it is thrown along just inside of the rail- in a 
slovenly manner. Round the dirt off, leaving 
the center about two and a half inches above the 
tie. Cover about two feet six inches of the cen- 



46 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ter of the ties between the rails, sloping the dirt 
from the center so that a shovel blade can easily 
be passed up under the rails between the ties 
and allow the water to run off. Continue the slope 
until it runs out at the bottom of the ends of the 
ties. Outside of the ties the shoulder should slope 
about one and a half inches to the foot, as far 
as the edge of the embankment. 


LINING OLD TRACK. 

6. When a railroad is in operation the track 
should be kept in perfect line at all times. Noth¬ 
ing contributes more to the smooth riding of a 
train than a true line of rails. The foreman, 
when lining track, should line as much as possi¬ 
ble with his back to the sun, because in that way 
he gets the best view of the rails. It is also nec¬ 
essary to look at the track line from the oppo¬ 
site direction, especially when lining across a sag. 
Very few trackmen can line track perfectly by 
going over it only once, unless they are experts 
and have perfect sight. Always stand as far 
away from the place to be lined as your sight 
will allow, and train your men to line by the 
motion of your hands, -when first putting the 
rails in place. By standing too close to the 
place to be lined, you are liable to throw a swing 
in the line to one side of the track. This is a 
fault of many foremen and should be avoided. 
If you^have a section which the previous fore- 




SPRING TRACK WORK. 


47 


man left in bad line, show your ability by reme¬ 
dying its defects in that particular every time 
you have an opportunity. If a foreman has 

some track on his section which has settled down 
and out of line, where the ground is wet or soft, 
and he has not the force of men necessary to 
move it, the work of putting it to place can be 
done with a small gang, by pulling the spikes out 
of two or three ties in a rail length at a time, 
and using the lining bars on top of the dead 
ties under the rails, thereby gaining a sol¬ 
id foundation to rest the bars upon, and 
much more leverage than could be got with the 
bars in the ground. After the track has been 
lined to place, the dead ties can be shifted to 
their proper position or the rails can be spiked 
down on them temporarily as they lay. When 
the track has a tendency to slip back out of line, 
the dead ties act as a brace to keep it in position. 
Very heavy track can be lined over to where it is 
wanted with a force of only two men by using a 
track lever or long bar on top of a block of wood 
with a rounding top surface. Place this block 
underneath the rail on that side of the track 
towards which it is desired to line it to. By pull¬ 
ing down on the lever a lifting pull is exerted, 
which draws the track towards that side, and 
with the assistance of another man on the oppos¬ 
ite side of the track pulling in the same direction 
with a common lining bar, the track can be lined 
to place. Foremen whose eye-sight is jiot equal 



48 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


to the task, can assist themselves when lining 
long stretches of track by placing clods of dirt or 
other small objects along on top of rail joints 
where the track has to be moved. It is much 
easier to get the small, dark objects into a true 
line, on account of the contrast between them and 
the rail, than it is to line perfectly a long stretch 
of rail, with its brightly polished and unbroken 
surface. Some of the instruction here given as to 
track lining may seem unimportant,but a know¬ 
ledge of how to act in certain cases is often the want 
of a track man, and to the young man not much 
experienced or learned in the track service, they 
will be found a valuable help. 

BOLTS THAT ARE TOO TIGHT. 

7. Some trackmen think that all bolts should 
be kept as tight as it is possible to make them. 
But it is an error that any trackman will fall ’in¬ 
to, until he is convinced to the contrary. There 
are several kinds of nut locks for track bolts in 
use on the railroads throughout the United States, 
the majority of which are devised for the pur¬ 
pose of locking the nut, and, at the same time, 
allowing the rails to contract or expand after the' 
bolts are tightened without danger of breaking 
the bolts. But the section foreman and his men 
come along, and tighten up all the bolts on the 
section, even if they can only make a quarter of 
a turn with the wrench. In fact, many foremen 



SPRING TRACK WORK. 


49 


add pieces to the ends of the-track wrenches, so 
that the men may be able to get more leverage, 
and as a result of their labor everything on a 

joint in the shape of a nut, lock, or washer, 
whether it be iron, or steel, or wood, or rubber, 
has every particle of spring or elasticity taken 
out of it, and the bolts all stand ready, the mo¬ 
ment a train passes or a change in the tempera¬ 
ture comes, to pop off as they break like so many 
candy sticks and numbers of them can be found 
along the track. Many of the nut locks which 
are used as above are no longer of any value ex¬ 
cept as washers to cover a few threads of the 
bolt. A joint with either four or six bolts in it, 
with a spring nut lock on each bolt, should have 
the nuts tightened just enough to get the full 
force of the resistance of the material used for a 
washer between the nut and splice. A comfort¬ 
able twist of the track wrench with the hand, af¬ 
ter the nut is run up to place will be found suf¬ 
ficient force to use when tightening bolts. When 
bolts are tightened in this ’way and there are 
angle bar splices used on the rail joint slot spik¬ 
ed to the ties all danger of the bolts or rails being 
injured is avoided, and the rails can contract or 
expand without track creeping. A slot spike 
through the rail flange in a tie with the bolts in 
the joint as tight as they can be made will either 
break the bolt or kink the rail near the spike, or 
throw the track out of line in hot weather. To 
prevent track men from breaking bolts when 



50 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


tightening them, track wrenches should not be 
made longer than sixteen inches for J in. bolts. 


REMOVING OLD TRACK BOLTS. 

8. When removing old track bolts from a 
joint splice, foremen should not allow their men 
to strike the thread end of the bolts with a wrench, 
a hammer, or any tool that would injure the bolt. 
Such usage spoils the bolts for further ser¬ 
vice. Nor should foremen allow their men to 
break the bolts out of a joint except in a case of 
emergency, such as to get ready for an expected 
train, or when a large gang of men, ready for 
work, might be delayed too long by waiting to 
remove a few bolts with a wrench. The nut 
should not be entirely removed from the bolt 
while in the splice until the bolt is loosened. A 
light tap on the nut when nearly off will loosen 
the bolt in the splice without injuring the thread. 
The threads of the old bolts should be oiled, and 
then nuts put back on the bolts again, so as to 
have them ready to use when wanted. 

CHANGE OF TEMPERATURE. 

9. All sudden changes of temperature affect 
the bolts in the rail joints on account of the ex¬ 
pansion or contraction of the rails. This is most 
noticeable in the spring and fall of the year. 




SPRING TRACK WORK. 


5i 


Foremen should not neglect to tighten up the 
bolts when they begin to rattle as trains pass 
over, or at any time when it is necessary. Al¬ 
ways remember that loose bolts make low 
joints, and increase the labor of track repair. 

LINE OF BRIDGES. 

10. Section foremen should be particular to 
keep the rails on all bridges in good line, espec¬ 
ially when they heave up or out of line in win¬ 
ter; also keep a good line and surface on the 
approaches of bridges. 

REPAIRING BRIDGES. 

• • 

11. All repair work on bridges should be done 
by bridge men or those who have charge of such 
work. Section foremen should not attempt to 
raise up stringers or caps on bridges, or do any 
other work on bridges for which they have not 
the proper tools or the necessary practice to per¬ 
form. In the absence of bridge carpenters sec¬ 
tion foremen can shim up the approaches of 
bridges when out of surface, or put blocking un¬ 
der stringers which have become loose on pile 
bridges, etc. All shimming should be done on 
top of ties when practicable. 






52 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


THE ENDS OF BRIDGES. 

i 2. The ends of all pile or frame bent bridges 
should be planked and filled in with ballast, and 
all dump ties should be tamped solid, up to the 
ends of the bridges. Whenever it is practicable, 
the end of a bridge and the dump should meet 
under the center of the track rails laid over 
them, because when a rail joint comes on the 
dump close to the end of a bridge, it is always 
more difficult to keep the track up to a good sur¬ 
face than if the center of a rail were there. 


DITCHING. 


13. In order to ditch a cut properly, a fore¬ 
man should take measurements from the rail to 
the bottom of the face of the cut, at different 
places along the cut, and ascertain at what aver¬ 
age distance from the track it will be best to 
have the back of the ditch. This is very impor¬ 
tant, because in the majority of cuts on a rail¬ 
road the line of face is more or less irregular and 
not truly parallel to the track, and the best dis¬ 
tance from the track for the back of the ditch is 



SPRING TRACK WORK. 


53 


that distance* which will give a good ditch with¬ 
out moving too great an amount of material. 
After a foreman has decided what width the 
ditch should be, he should line it with the shovel 
or drive stakes along the back of it, for his men 
to work by; otherwise they will be apt to make it 
crooked. Nothing is more unsightly than a 
crooked ditch, and it will fill up much quicker 
than a straight one. The ditch should always be 
a little deeper at the lower end of a cut, and 
gradually grow shallower as it goes up grade. 
If you ditch parts of two or three cuts on your 
section at different times, each of the cuts will 
have some time to drain off, the material in the 
ditches will be dryer and in better condition to 
work in, and men can do more than if they were 
kept in one very wet cut all the time. Where 
water leaves a cut through a ditch, the ditch 
should be well turned off from the track. Always 
carry the discharge end of a ditch so far away 
from the track that there will be no danger of 
water from the ditch washing out the embank¬ 
ment under the track. Foremen should always 
select for ditching a time of the year when the 
weather is not fair enough to do other track 
work. Some foremen use very poor judgment 
in this matter, sometimes spending two or three 
weeks in making a ditch during good dry weather, 
while there is a great amount of bad track on 
their section which needs to be put in good re¬ 
pair. 




54 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


WIDTH AND SHAPE OF DITCHES. 

14. The width of a cut and the slope of its 
face on each side of the track must always gov¬ 
ern, to a certain extent, how far from the track 
rails to have the back of a ditch. All railroad 
cuts should be opened so wide when the track is 
first laid that there will be room to make all 
ditches a uniform distance from the rail. A ditch 
should be deep enough to thoroughly drain the 
track, and the distance from the rail to the back 
of the ditch should'be in proportion to the depth 
of the ditch, giving the water an easy fall from 
the track and free passage through the ditch, so 
that there will be no danger of its washing the 
shoulder of the grade, or undermining the track. 
Deep ditches close to the track, in a cut, soon 
weaken the foundation, and wash away the bal¬ 
last outside the ties, especially where the ballast 
is sand or gravel. The bottom of a ditch should 
be ten feet from the rails where the grade width 
will allow it, and should also be two feet below 
the bottom of the ties. 

SLOPE OF DITCHES. 

« 

15. When track is ballasted with dirt the 
slope should commence in the center of the 
track, two and one half inches above the ties, 
and run out for a distance of seven feet, falling 
at the rate of one and one half inches to the foot. 



SPRING TRACK WORK. 


55 


From this point, which is three feet outside the 
ties, and two inches lower, the incline should be 
greater, about in the proportion of four inches or 
more to the horizontal foot. § It is a mistake to 
run the slope from the bottom of the ends of the 
ties, directly to the back of the ditch, as some 
track men do, because when the track is raised 
up to put ballast under it, the inclination of the 
foundation beneath it will be too sharp to pro¬ 
tect the ballast from wasting or washing away. 
If a track is ballasted with gravel, the slope 
towards the back of the ditch should commence 
about two feet outside the track rails, as shown 
in Fig. 2, the ballast at this point being nearly 
level with the base of the rails. 

GRADE OF DITCHES. 

16. If a cut is level throughout its length, 
the ditch should be deeper at the ends than at 
the middle. Where the grade of a cut descends 
towards the ends from the center, the average 
depth of the ditch may be the same throughout 
the cut. Track men should always begin to 
ditch at the lower end of a wet cut, and finish 
up as they go. The piece ditched every day will 
help to drain off the water behind them. 

§. Ditches which are made to conform to this shape are 
easily cleaned'out. They are quicker made, and there is 
much less dirt to be moved than when the ditch is made 
dish form, because the water is always thrown away from 
the track. 






56 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 



of Track, Under the Rail, with Incline of Shoulder Outside the Ties; Bottom of Ditch 2 Feet Below Ties. 










SPRING TRACK WORK. 


57 . 


CLEANING OUT DITCHES. 

17- No old ties or other obstructions should 
ever be allowed to remain in the ditches along the 
track. All ditches should be cleaned out thor¬ 
oughly every fall and the last thing before winter 
sets in, so that during the continuance of the 
spring rains or while snow is melting, the water 
can pass off freely without injuring the track 
A small ditch made with a plow along the top of 
the side of a deep cut, and near the edge of its 
face, will carry off the surface water, and pro¬ 
tect the side of the cut from washing into the 
track ditches and filling them up too rapidly. 


A DITCHING RULE. [J] 

18. A simple device, like that shown in Fig. 
3, is very handy for foremen to use when ditch¬ 
ing. It can be made as follows: Use for the 
long piece a straight edge 1x4 inches, twelve feet 

Many of the deep, narrow, and wet cuts which are 
common on some railroads, and which it has cost thousands 
of dollars to maintain in only a passable shape, could as 
well have been put in a first class condition with only half 
the expense, if the work had been done before the track 
was laid. A number of the northwestern roads have adopt- 
ed*the plan of grading down the smaller cuts along their 
road, with a gradual slope from the bottom of the ends of 
the ties almost to the right of way limits, in some cases. 
This nearly does away with shallow cuts. The material is 
used to strengthen the adjoining fill, and the track at that 
point is protected from snow drifts in the winter months. 






58 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 




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SPRING TRACK WORK. 


59 


long. For the short cross-piece, B, use a piece 
of board 1x3 inches, four feet long. On one end 
of the long piece fix a piece of sheet iron, C, 
twelve or fourteen inches long, double it, and 
bolt the ends of it through the wood, leaving a 
space through which the short piece, B, can be 
passed freely. A hole should be bored through 
the sheet iron, so that a set crew or a bolt can be 
used to secure the short piece at any distance 
from either end of it. The cross piece, B, of the 
ditching rule should be set so that the back of it 
will be at the proper angle for the back of the 

ditch, and upon one side of it should be marked 
distances by which to regulate the depth of the 
ditch. When in operation, one end of this ditch¬ 
ing rule, D, should rest upon the nearest track 
rail, and at the other end the material should be 
removed from the face of the cut, until the cross 
piece, B, rests in proper position to shape the 
ditch. Then, by trying the spirit level on top 

of the longer piece, and adjusting the cross piece 
to the required depth, the bottom level of the 
ditch can be carried uniformly throughout the 
length of the cut, if the track is in true surface, 
without any change in the rule. Foremen should 
fit the rule to place at distances of a rail length, 

or less, and the men will have a guide to work 
by, and can cut the ditch correctly without any 
additional labor. A marker can be put on the 
long piece, which will show where the ditch slope 
commences outside the ends of the track ties. 




6o 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 










SPRING TRACK WORK. 


61 


If it is desirable to lower the ditch, say twelve 
inches in as many rail lengths, it is only neces¬ 
sary tolet the cross piece, B, down one inch every 
thirty feet, at the same time keeping the long 
piece always level on top. In like manner by 
shortening up the cross piece the ditch bottom 

t 

can be gradually raised or made more shallow. 

TRACK DRAINAGE. 

19. A thoroughly good drainage is one of the 
most essential features of a first class track, to 
accomplish which, all the water which falls upon 
the track or adjoining land should be conducted 
through ditches, culverts, bridges, or other chan¬ 
nels to the nearest running stream that will take 
it away beyond possibility of injuring the track. 

These channels for conveying the water away 
from the track should be sufficiently large to por- 
form the duty required of them as well during a 
freshet as when only an ordinary amount of 
water passes through them. At all marshy or 
low places where water remains standing along¬ 
side of the track, openings should be made be¬ 
neath the track to allow the water to pass 
through, and divide equally on each side of the 
embankment, and at such places the embank¬ 
ment should be made high enough above the 
water to insure a solid, dry roadway. The em¬ 
bankment should also be rip-rapped along the 
sides, if there is any possibility of strong winds 




62 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 



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SPRING TRACK WORK. 


63 


or rapid streams forcing the water against it and 
washing the material away. 

In this connection I wish to say, that where 
musk rats or minks are plentiful and cause dam¬ 
age to the track by burrowing under it, a good 
heavy coating of cinders and slag along the sides 
of the embankment is a most effectual protection 
against their depredations. Whether the cinders 
deposit an acid in the water or are too sharp for 
the animals to burrow through I am unable to 
state, but I have found cinders a better article 
for this purpose than gravel or any of the differ¬ 
ent kinds of earth. 

Ind3ep, wet cuts where the material has a 
tendency to slide, the road bed should be 
widened out much more than at any other point, 
and the face of the side of the cut should be 
made with a very gradual incline from the top of 
the cut to the track. If it. will grow some grass 
all the better. 

The work of widening cuts and road beds can 
be done cheaper and to better advantage before 
the track is laid, than afterwards. 

The bottoms of ditches which run alongside 
the track, through a cut, should be carried not 
less than ten feet from the rails on each side, and 
they should be as far below the bottom of the 
track ties as it is possible to have them, and re¬ 
tain a nicely proportioned incline from the ends 
of the ties to the back of the ditch. Open ditches 
or tiling which are too close to the track, or not 




64 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 


deep enough below the track ties, are only a 
make-shift and a hindrance to maintaining a 
good, dry track. Coarse stone makes a good 
foundation in a wet cut, if laid beneath the bal¬ 
last into which the ties are imbedded, (but they 
can be dispensed with, where the track can be 
raised up above the mud without spoiling the sur¬ 
face or grade standard ). In fact, this latter is 
the most economical method (after a track has 
been laid) of draining a track and making a good 
ditch at the same time. Briefly stated, to drain 
the track in a cut, the same conditions must exist, 
as nearly as possible, as where the track is laid 
in ballast on a good, solid All or embankment, 

several feet above the surface of the ground the 
same as where there is no cut. 

The incline of the sides of the embankment 
should be a natural slope, with no abrupt angles. 
No earth embankment can be prevented from 
washing without artificial means where the in¬ 
cline is so steep that vegetation will not grow 
upon it. 

Instead of box or open culverts of timber I 
would recommend that iron tubing or vitrified 
culvert pipe of a sufficient strength be substi¬ 
tuted, this tubing or pipe to be faced with ma¬ 
sonry at both the inlet and outlet of the pipes on 
each side of the embankment; and where the 
diameter of these pipes is too small to carry off 
all the water, that there be two or more of them 
laid across under the track parallel with each 
other. 




SPRING TRACK WORK. 


65 


I would also recommend that where the condi¬ 
tions are favorable and the cost is not too great, 
stone arched openings be put under the track, 
with good, strong, side walls, a paved floor and 
deflecting wings at both sides of the embank¬ 
ment; these to take the place, as far as possible, 
of all small wooden bridges. 

CULVERTS AND BRIDGES. 

20. The policy of most railroads in regard to 
bridges and water ways, as far as the writer’s ex¬ 
perience shows, is to contract the limits of bridges 
and trestles as much as is practicable, because 
earth is a much cheaper article to support the 
track where it can be used with safety. This is 
also the reason why box culverts are substituted 
for small bridges wherever it can be done, and at 
many places where it should not be done, as for 
instance, at points where the opening is not large 
enough to carry off the amount of water which 
must pass through under the track. Then the 
culvert generally washes out, the earth above it 
is undermined, and the result is a wreck of more 
or less magnitude, unless the trackmen discover 
and repair the damage in time. 

Even when wooden culverts are covered with 
earth, parts of the side timbers project on the 
ends, and there is always more or less rubbish, 
dead grass or weeds, which accumulates at the 
mouths of them, making,the liability to accident 




66 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


by fire almost as great as on trestles or bridges. 

Where nothing but wood is used in the con¬ 
struction of bridges or culverts, I am decidedly 
in favor of using small pile bridges instead of 
box culverts. There is less danger of the bridges 
washing out, while liability to accident by fire is 
about the same, and men patrolling the track can 
see at a glance when an open bridge is safe, 
while he must often go 20 or 30 feet below the 
track to examine a culvert. 

GRADING CUTS. 

21. Wet, soft cuts on railroads are a great 
annoyance, and very expensive for the companies 
that are troubled with them. They are the 
chief cause for increasing the section force and 
for which ditching gangs and extra quantities of 
ballast must be furnished. 

In the spring and summer the track in wet cuts 
is rough and sometimes hard to find where there 
is no ballast under it. Trains must run slow and 
the wear and tear on rolling stock is greater than 
at other points on the road. In the winter the 
track in bad cuts is heaved up, and it requires 
considerable extra labor and expense to keep it 
passable, and owing to the frequent spiking and 
the nature of the material in which they are laid 
the ties soon rot and have to be renewed. For 
new railroad construction there is a cheap and 
effective remedy for the evils above mentioned 



SPRING TRACK WORK. 


6 7 


which is seldom or never adopted. This consists 
in widening the road bed in proportion to the 
height of the cut, or in conformity with the na¬ 
ture of the material through which the cut is 
made, instead of following out the iron clad rule 
which makes the width of the road bed the same 
in all cuts, whether in rock or yellow clay. A 
practical and experienced man should have full 
charge of the grading work on a new road, and 
he should be at liberty to widen the road bed, or 
ease the side slopes of any cut, in a manner 
which would protect the track from the effects of 
heavy rains or a springy bottom. 

Surface ditches should be put along the tops 
of all cuts to run off the water at the ends, and 
to prevent it coming in on the track over the 
faces of the cuts. 



68 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER III. 

i, Summer Track Work-2, Track Ties—-3, Putting New 
Ties Under the Track—4, Select your Joint Ties—5, Fin¬ 
ish as Yon Go—6, Distributing New Ties—7, Make the 
Worst Places Safe First—8, Ties Under Joints—9, Esti¬ 
mating New Ties for Repairs—10,Counting the BadTies— 
11, Wide Spaces—12. Remove Bad Ties When Ballast¬ 
ing—13, Twisted Ties—14, Ties at Highway Crossings— 
15, Remove the Bark—16, Old Ties—17, Average Life of 
Ties—18, Tie Account for a Year. 

1, The Cutting of Weeds—2, Weeds on Heavy Grades 
—3, To Lessen Weed Cutting. 

1, Ballast, Fig. 5, Showing Cross Section Gravel Ballast¬ 
ed Track—2, Surface Levels, Fig. 6—3, Before Ballasting 
Track—4,When to Ballast, Fig. 7—5, Ballasting—6, Rais¬ 
ing Track—7, Raise Both Sides—8, Solid Centers—9, High 
Places—10, Uniform Tamping—11, Dressing Ballasted 
Track—12, A Day’s Work—13, Refuse Ballast in Cuts— 
14, Have the Track Ready—15, High Raising—16, Gravel 
Required to Ballast a Mile of Track—17, Level Track in 
Yards—18, How to Level Yard Tracks—-19, Gravel Pits— 
20, Gravel vs. Weeds. 

1. The month of May is the season of the 
year when, on northern railroads, the work of 
general track repair should be pushed steadily. 
Track is becoming dry in many places, and 
heaved track is settling back to its old bed. 












SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


69 


Section foremen should select parts of the 
track at the furthest ends of their sections, and 
work in the following manner. Tamp up all low 

places to the proper surface and level; tighten’ 
up all bolts; put a good line on the track, and 
take all kinks out of the gauge side; fill in the 
center of the track where necessary, and dress it 
out of a face, cleaning the shoulder of all weeds, 
and strengthening the embankment at all weak 
points as you go along. In fact, do everything 
necessary to make a good safe track. Do not 
slight anything, and you will have the satisfac¬ 
tion of knowing that so much track as has re¬ 
ceived your attention is in good shape, when you 
are called away to do other important work, 
such as putting in ties, cutting weeds, laying new 
steel, etc. Add to this good track daily, and 
save making so many excursions after that par¬ 
ticular low joint, bad bridge approach, or batter¬ 
ed rail, all of which jobs if looked after sepa¬ 
rately, consume lots of valuable time. 

When the time comes for putting in new ties, 
those broken under the track rails, or where 
there are several rotten ties together should be 
removed first. The work of changing ties 
should be weM done. Ties should be properly 
spaced, laid square across the track, and tamped 
solid up under the rail. The number should be 
increased wherever there was wide space be¬ 
tween the old ties, or in order to get a good 
hewed tie under the center of every rail joint. 



70 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


Track should not be ballasted or surfaced out 
of a face in the northwest earlier than the I 5th 
of May, nor should new steel be laid until the 
track is in a good condition to receive it, except 
when a gang of men is furnished to go along and 
fix the track as fast as it is laid. But such work 
is better if delayed until the weather is warm and 
the ground thoroughly dry. 

By the first day of June, section foremen 
should have their track in as good a condition as 
possible, so as to give most of their time to cut¬ 
ting weeds and surfacing track, without having 
to do so much general repair work. 

TRACK TIES. 

2. Having had considerable experience for a 
number of years in making and laying track ties, 
and removing old ones from track, and noticing 
that the subject has received some attention by 
other writers, I should like to add a little to the 
information already advanced. 

Taking a practical view of the question, I am 
compelled to differ from those who advocate 
keeping the heart side-of a tie above the ground, 
and should prefer laying all ties in the track with 
the sap side up, especially ties made by splitting 
a log of timber in two parts. Such ties will lie 
better, shed water better, and last longer, than if 
turned the opposite way. 

The shape of a tie, itself, will generally de- 






SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


7 1 


cide what way it should be laid in track, notwith¬ 
standing any theory to the contrary. Preference 
is always given to the wider side of a tie for the 
base, and this will bring the heart side down in 
either a quarter or half log tie. In the pole ties 
there is no preference worth considering, ex¬ 
cept as to width of face as above referred to. 
The kind and quality of timber from which 
track ties are made, is a question of much more 
importance to a railroad company, as the differ¬ 
ence in the length of life and service of ties 
made from various kinds of timber is so great 
that a saving of more than half the cost may be 
effected, in some instances, by selecting the most 
lasting timber. 

It is not always possible to procure the best 
ties, but an effort should be made to have them 
above the average , even at an increased price. 
Other things being equal, a railroad which is 
not compelled to renew its track ties for nine or 
ten years after they are laid in the ground has an 
immense advantage over a road that must re¬ 
new its ties once in five years. The latter road 
must figure into its expense account almost double 
the cost for material , besides the additional 
track labor necessary to do the work , and during 
the interval it cannot have as gcod a track as the 
former. Ties sawed square will rot quicker and 
break easier than hewed ties, and are generally 
too small to give a good bearing surface. But 
pole ties, with a face on two sides, made by saw- 




72 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ing slabs from them, are generally good and pre¬ 
ferable to quarter ties or ties split out of very 
large logs, because the wood of a big tree is more 
brittle than that of a younger growth. A well 
hewed pole tie, with a face on two sides, eight to 
ten inches wide, is preferable to all others for 
track purposes. No tie should exceed seven in¬ 
ches in thickness, and all ties should be cut a 
uniform length for main track, except in bridges 
and switches." The life of a track tie is not al¬ 
together dependent upon the kind or quality of 
timber used. 

■ i ' i 

the same kind of a tie will last longer at the 
North where the ground is frozen all winter, 
than in the South, where the process of decay 
goes on uninterruptedly. There is also a marked 
difference in the effect on ties of an extremely 
wet or dr)/ climate. 

It seems to be a very difficult matter, when constructing 
a new railroad, or when procuring new ties for renewals,to 
secure ties oi a size that will be uniform in width of face 
and thickness. In regard to the length of ties, I believe the 
ugly and irregular line of ties on the gauge side of track, 
caused by the difference in the length of ties, is the result 
of gross carelessness in the officer or company that accepts 
them fiom the tie maker. If ties were all of a uniform 
length, besides improving the track, it would prevent unev¬ 
en settling of track; and by lining evenly on both sides, 
they aid the track foreman in arranging the ballast a uniform 
width on each side ol track, and prevent the useless work 
spen. in tamping the long ends and digging out for them, 
and on mud track it would lessen the labor of weed cutting. 






SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


73 


PUTTING NEW TIES UNDER THE TRACK. 

3. When putting ties under the track the 
foreman should never allow the men to dig out 
any more than is necessary to allow the tie to 
go under easily. The old bed should not be 
disturbed if the new tie will fit. A very good 
method for putting ties in a mud track, where 
there are a good many ties to be changed, is to dig 
out between every two rotten ties, and on each 
side of the track, a little deeper than the bed of 
the ties, pull the spikes from the old ties, spring 
the rail on a tie either side of the hole which has 
been dug, and slip a spike under the rail. Use 
nothing thicker than a spike. Then knock the 
old ties into the hole, and pull out. Pull the 
new tie into the same hole from the opposite side 
of the track, if it is of about the right size; let 
a man on each side of the track slide the tie in¬ 
to its bed, keeping it close up to the rail until in 
its place. If the place to receive the tie is a 
little too deep, scatter a shovel or two of fine 
dirt evenly over the bed, then slide the tie under 
the rail as before. * When both new ties are in, 
take the spike from under the rail, and you will 
find both ties in better shape than if tamped un¬ 
der for several minutes. The ties will hug the 
rail and very seldom be over an eighth of an inch 
too high, an error which cannot be seen after the 
first train passes over. 

The writer has tried all methods,'but finds the 




74 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


above the best, safest, and quickest. When ties 
are put in this way there is no tamping to be 
done, and they can be spiked without the neces¬ 
sity of having a man to hold up the ends of the 
ties for the spiker. This method can only be 
used when putting ties in a mud track. In gravel 
or stone, the ties must be tamped, and should be 
held up to the rail when spiking them. 

When men have had some practice at putting 
in ties in this way, they can put in one-third 
more in a day, per man, than by tamping; and 
in much better shape. But it is not advisable to 
raise the track up to put in ties in gravel, be¬ 
cause the gravel will run under the ties and spoil 
the surface of the track. 

A 

New ties should always be spaced evenly; they 
should be square across the track, and laid 
so that the same length of tie will project outside 
of each rail, as very short or long ties, if put to 
line on the line side, would give an uneven bear¬ 
ing surface for the rails, thereby making track 
difficult to keep level. The only necessity for a 
line side on such ties is when laying new track. 

SELECT YOUR JOINT TIES. 

4. When selecting ties to put under joints, 
where common splices are used, always choose 
the best hewed and widest tie you can find, but 
never bring the shoulder ties close to the joint at 
the expense of the quarters. Under joints where 




SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


75 


angle bar splices are used, put in two well hewn ties 
of about equal size, and have each tie come well un¬ 
der the angle bar splices not over 6 in. apart. When 
putting in ties a foreman should divide his gang 
in such a way that all can be working at once, 
having each man do the work he is best suited to 
perform, and when working a large gang of men 
he ought to have tools enough to work them in 
separate gangs, because in this way a great deal 
more work can be done in proportion to the num¬ 
ber of men. Ties sawed square should never be 
put under a rail joint. 

FINISH AS YOU GO. 

5. When a section foreman is putting in ties 
out of a face, leaving the track well tied behind 
him, he should take time each day to level up all 
low places in the piece of track tied,dressing it up, 
not only in spots where the ties have been put 
under, but continuously. He should, if neces¬ 
sary, cut the weeds at the same time, and do 
any other work that is needed. By doing the 
work this way, he'leaves behind him, every day, 
a good piece of track, which grows longer as he 
advances, and shows up to his own advantage, 
and his superior's satisfaction. 

DISTRIBUTING NEW TIES. 

6. When new ties are being distributed on his 




?6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


section, a foreman should be particular to so dis¬ 
tribute them that it will not afterwards be nec¬ 
essary to haul them any great distance to where 
they are wanted. Hauling ties half a mile • or 
more with a push car to where you want 
'them, when they could as well have been put 
there with the train, is only a waste of time and 
labor. 


MAKE THE WORST PLACES SAFE FIRST. 

/. When the number of rotten ties on a sec¬ 
tion is very great, or when the bad ties are in 
bunches, from three to ten together in a rail 
length, making the track unsafe, always look to 
such places first, and get in enough new ties in 
these places to make them safe, and keep track 
in good gauge. After you have done this, then 
will be time enough to commence putting in the 
new ties out of a face. 

When putting in new ties out of a face, if the 
old ties left in the tiack are not to gauge, bring 
to the proper gauge with new ones, don't leave 
them an irregular gauge. 

TIES UNDER JOINTS. 

8. When two rail joints on opposite sides of 
the track are not squarely opposite each other, 
never try to twist one tie around so as to make 




SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


77 


each end of it come under the center of a joint. 
This makes the joint weaker than any other part 
of the rail in proportion to the difference be¬ 
tween the square of the joints. When rail joints 
pass each other so much that the center of each 
joint will not rest on opposite edges of a good 
tie, put into track another tie, so that the center 
of each joint will rest on the center of one end 
of either of the ties. Track is much better and 
easier to keep up to surface where there are 
plenty of ties under it. A good method for 
spacing ties is to have the space between all ties 
just wide enough to pass a track shovel up be¬ 
tween them. Where white cedar ties are used 
there should be not less than seventeen to a thir¬ 
ty foot rail length. 


ESTIMATING NEW TIES FOR REPAIRS. 

9. In the fall of the year, or at any other 
time that section foremen are requested to 
send their roadmasters an estimate of the num¬ 
ber of new ties wanted for repair of track on 
their sections, the foreman should make a per¬ 
sonal examination of every tie in the track in his 
charge, counting every rotten or broken tie which 
must be removed from the track before the end 
of another year. In the statement should also 
be included the number of ties wanted to repair 
his side tracks, and any extra ties wanted to fill 



78 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


wide spaces, which may have been omitted*when 
the track was first laid. 

COUNTING THE BAD TIES. 


10. When the bad ties are counted, each one 
should be examined, and tried with a pick, if 
necessary. Do not run over the track on a hand 
car, carelessly counting the ties as you go, nor 
make an estimate of the number of ties wanted, 
by guess. The number of ties wanted each year 
for repairs is an important item of expense to a 
railroad company, and all estimates for new ties 
should be made as accurate as possible. 

WIDE SPACES. 

11. When putting in new ties, track foremen 
should see that all wide spaces are filled between 
the old ties which were too far apart when the 
track was laid, or where other foremen neglected 
to space them properly, putting in two for one, 
or three for two wherever necessary. 


REMOVE BAD TIES WHEN BALLASTING. 

12. When a track is being ballasted with 
gravel, stone or other material, all the bad ties 
should be replaced by new ones as fast as the 





SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


79 


track is ballasted. The work of changing ties is 
more easily done when ballasting, and costs less; 
and the track does not have to be disturbed again 
for a much longer period. 

TWISTED TIES. 

13. Foremen putting new ties into the track 
should adze off the edge at the ends of all twisted 
ties, sufficiently to give the base of the track rails 
a level surface to rest on for the full width of the 
tie, at each end of it. 

TIES AT HIGHWAY CROSSINGS. 


14. When new ties have been distributed 
along the track, the section foremen should go 
over his section immediately after the distributing 
train, and remove to a safe distance all ties which 
are close to the track rails, or in a dangerous po¬ 
sition. All ties on the ground close to highway 
or farm crossings should either be put into the 
track at once, or removed to some place where 
there would be less danger of their being stolen, 
or obstructing the highway. Section foremen 
should not overlook any crossings when putting 
in ties; the plank should be taken up, the track 
examined, and all the new ties needed put in 
there. 




8o 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


REMOVE THE BARK. 

15. The bark should be removed from all 
hewed or round timber used in railrord construc¬ 
tion, before it is put into service in the ground, or 
above the ground. 

Bridge piles will remain sound much longer if 
the bark is removed, and they are allowed to 
season, before they are put in the ground, be¬ 
cause the water which falls on the wood above 
the surface of the ground, soon evaporates, and 
leaves the timber in a good, dry condition. If 
the bark is allowed to remain, it prevents evapo¬ 
ration of the sap, or other moisture, for a much 
longer time, and therefore induces decay. The 
same may be said of fence posts, and there is 
considerable loss occasioned by nails or other 
fastenings not securing a firm hold on the wood, 
where they are driven through the bark. 

In the case of track ties, ({) the bark, if not 
removed, assists materially the process of decay, 
and it is also a continual source of arinoyance to 
the track men when tamping or repairing the 
track, and dangerous on account of fire. The 
best time to remove the bark from ties is during 
the winter months, before the ties are distributed 
along the track. 

J. All track ties last much longer, hold a spike better 
and give better results generally, if they are thoroughly 
seasoned before putting them into the track. All timber 
used in railroad construction should be well seasoned be¬ 
fore putting into the ground. 







SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


81 


OLD TIES. 

16. I believe the best way to dispose of the 
old ties, which are taken out of the track, is to 
get rid of them with as little expense and hand¬ 
ling as possible. After the section men receive 
what old ties they require for firewood,' the bal¬ 
ance should be traded for work, or given away to 
people living along the road, with the under¬ 
standing that the old ties be removed at once, 
after they are taken from the track. 

There is a large amount* of labor wasted in 
picking up, hauling, piling up and burning old 
ties which had better be devoted to improving 
the track. In most sections of the country where 
timber is scarce, the farmers living along the 
track will do plowing or grading, or give labor on 
the track equivalent to the old ties. 


AVERAGE LIFE OF TIES. 

17. The average life of ties can only be de¬ 
termined in localities where they are used. Ties 
made from the same timber will rot quicker in 
one kind of soil or ballast than they will in 
another. The climate also effects the life of a 
tie, as also does the amount of traffic over the 
road, the width of rail base, etc. 

Another point to consider, when calculating 
the life of a tie, is the condition in which it is al- 



82 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


lowed to remain in track. Some companies have 
all the old ties removed from track as soon as 
they will not hold a spike, while other roads al¬ 
low old ties to remain in track until they are en¬ 
tirely worthless. The latter roads gain about 
another year’s use of the ties, but it does not pay, 
except in the case of an occasional tie, broken or 
rotten in the center, but still giving the rails a 
good support at the ends. Any tie which has 
begun to give away under the rail should at once 
be replaced by a new one. When bad ties are 
numerous, it is impossible for track men to re¬ 
pair the road without putting under new ties. 

I 8. TIE ACCOUNT FOR A YEAR. 


MONTHS. 

TIES RECEIVED. 

PUT IN TRACK. 

ON HAND. 

HardTiesJsoft Ties. 

' 

HardTies Soft Ties. 

HardTies 

Soft Ties. 

January.... 
February .. 

March. 

A pri 1. 

1000 

none 

300 

500 

100 

none 

none 

none 

1100 

none 

none 

200 

1000 

1000 

200 

500 

600 

400 

May. 







•Tune 







.Tilly . 







August. 







September. 







October 







November . 
December.. 













Track foremen will find the above form a han¬ 
dy way to keep a correct account of all ties handled 
on their section. If it is necessary to keep account 
of more than two kinds of ties, additional col¬ 
umns may be put in under the three heads, “Ties 
Received," “Put in Track, ” or “On Hand. ’’ 















































SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


THE CUTTING OF WEEDS. 

i. Weeds on track should be cut clean with 
the shovel between the ties and out to a distance 
ol at least two and J feet beyond the ends of 
the ties, on the shoulders of embankments. In 
cuts, the weeds growing outside of the track 
should be cut to the back line of the ditches, 
unless where grass sod is allowed to grow to pro¬ 
tect the shoulder of the track. On embank- 

m 

ments, the weeds at a greater distance from the 
ends of ties than that mentioned above should 
be kept cut down with a scythe or bush hook, as 
far out as the right of way limits, if the foreman 
is allowed men enough to perform this work with¬ 
out neglecting the track or other necessary work. 
A clean track is not by any means a safe track, 
and a foreman should not have his men mowing 
grass and weeds along the right of way, unless 
the help he is allowed and the condition of his 
track at the time will admit of it. Before com¬ 
mencing to cut weeds a foreman should grind on 
the inside of the blade any new shovels he is 
about to use and bevel them back from the edge 
about five-sixteenths of an inch-. He should also 
carry a flat file to use when necessary, and never 
allow his men to hammer shovels on the edge of 
the blade, as this practice causes pieces to break¬ 
out of the front of shovels and render them al¬ 
most useless. A foreman should watch his men 







84 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


when cutting weeds and see that the weeds are 
cut under the surface of the ground as those 
which are only cut off above the ground com¬ 
mence growing immediately after being cut. 
When weeds are cut in the center of a track or 
on an embankment the dirt which comes on the 
shovel together with the weeds should not be 
thrown down the embankment, but be either 
turned over or allowed to remain where it was 
moved from. The practice of shaving off the 
embankment one or two inches every time weeds 
are cut is bad, and should not be tolerated, as 
the loose dirt thrown down the hill soon washes 
away, and each additional weed cutting of this 
kind weakens the shoulder,makes the fill narrow¬ 
er and in time allows the ends of ties to project 
over and track to settle for want of a sufficient 
foundation. 

When cutting weeds, always have your men 
cut on separate rail lengths, as this relieves the 
monotony of the work; it also acts as a stimulus, 
making each one anxious to do his part of the 
work in time to take his place in turn with the 
other men. 


WEEDS ON HEAVY GRADES. 

2. If a section foreman’s help is so limited 
that it is not possible for him to keep all of the 
track in his charge clear of grass and weeds dur¬ 
ing the summer months, he should commence 





SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


85 


part way up the heaviest grades on his section, 
and cut the weeds clean out of the track to the 
top of the grade and down the same distance on 
the opposite side- This will enable heavy trains 
to go through without any inconvenience, and 
the weeds in the sags can be cleaned out after¬ 
wards as the foreman has the time to do it. 

If the section is all level track you can follow 
the same plan, cutting the weeds a quarter of a 
mile or more in one place, occasionally skipping 
a piece. This will enable an engine to gain 
speed enough where the track is clear, to haul 
the train without slipping, over places where the 
weeds are not cut. 

TO LESSEN WEED CUTTING. 

3. The labor of weed cutting on a dirt-bal¬ 
lasted track may be lessened a great deal by 
work done on the section in the spring before the 
weeds become troublesome, by the following 
method: At all points where a foreman puts a 
number of new ties in the track near together, he 
should stop long enough to surface up the track, 
line and dress it out of a face, and by this means kill 
the young weeds or at least retard their growth 
at that place. After a foreman is well advanced 
with the work of putting in ties, some of the old 
ties may be traded to farmers living near the 
track for plowing a couple of furrows along on 
each side of the track 10 or 15 feet from the rail, 



86 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


and in a line parallel with the track, keeping a 
little outside the bottom of the track embank¬ 
ment. Have this work done where it is high and 
narrow, especially where the shoulder of the 
track outside the ties has been weakened by sur¬ 
face washing or from constant weed cutting pre¬ 
vious years. 

After the plowing has been done the foreman 
should take his men and level up all low spots in 
the track and line it up already to fill in and 
dress. Then put part of the men to work on 
each side of the track and have them cut the 
plowed sod into handy lengths and lay them 
along at the ends of the track ties with the grass ’ 
side down, and fill the balance of the track in the 
center and between the ties with material taken 
from the bottom of the newly plowed furrows 
and dress and finish the track with it. This work 
should be continued as long as you can spare the 
time from other necessary track work and by the 
time regular weed cutting begins you will have 
one or two miles of first class mud track with all 
the old grass or weeds killed. The track will be 
strengthened and kept in better line, and, there 
being no weed seed in the material taken from 
the plow furrows for ballasting, you will be saved 
the necessity of cutting much weeds on that 
piece of track all summer, and all your other 
work will be advanced proportionately. 






SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


87 


BALLAST. 


1. A better track can be made with gravel 
and stone combined for ballast, than when either 
of these materials is used alone. The founda¬ 
tion for the track should be laid with broken 
stone, and above the stone should be placed a 
quantity of coarse gravel sufficient to bed the 
ties, surface the track, and dress it. Where 
gravel and stone are used together, as above 
stated, the stone need not be broken as small or 
uniform in size as where stone is used alone for 
ballast. Gravel and stone when used for track 
ballast have, each, advantages peculiar to them¬ 
selves. Stone makes the most solid foundation, 
drains the track best, does not freeze in cold 
weather, does not grow weeds, will not wash, and 
makes very little dust. On the other hand, grav¬ 
el is easier to procure along most roads, costs 
less than stone, is more elastic, not wearing the 
track ties or iron, or the rolling stock as much as 
stone, drains the track well, and does not grow 
many weeds. It also possesses superior advan¬ 
tages in handling, little more than half as 
much labor being required to surface a given 
amount of track as when stone ballast is used;, 
and all kinds of track repairs, especially chang¬ 
ing ties, can be made much quicker and cheaper in 
gravel than in stone ballast. Two car loads of 



88 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 






















SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


89 


gravel to a thirty foot rail length, laid upon a lay¬ 
er of broken stone twelve inches thick, will make 
a first class road bed, but the proportions of 
gravel or stone used for ballast should depend on 
the kind of bottom * over which the track was 
laid, the cost of materials and the amount which 
could be furnished. 

SURFACE LEVELS. 

2. When it is intended to ballast several 
miles of old railroad, or when ballasting track 
out of a face behind track layers, levels should 
be given by the engineers just as for bedding ties, 
with only this difference, that the top of the lev¬ 
el stakes should be the surface level of the track 
rails. These level stakes could be arranged so as 
to answer for lining track, like center stakes, and 
in all cases where track is newly ballasted, pro¬ 
vision should be made for putting it in perfect 
line, more especially curve track which should be 
lined as originally located. 

BEFORE BALLASTING TRACK. 

3. All track that is about to be ballasted with 
cinders, gravel, or stone should be cleaned out to 
a level with the bottom of the ties, and the dirt 

* Deep sags should always be raised up the required 
' height before track is ballasted. It is a bad policy and a 
waste of material to increase the depth of ballast in order 
to level up a deep sag in the grade. 








go 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 















SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


9i 


taken out should be put along the shoulder of 
the grade, to strengthen it and save the ballast 
from washing away. If the dirt between the 
ties in a new track is not taken out before put¬ 
ting under ballast of cinders or gravel, it soon 
mixes with the ballast used, and works gradually 
to the top in wet or low places, making the labor 
of repair more difficult, and growing more weeds. 
Where the ballast is of sufficient thickness, or in 
taking up sags, the digging out can be omitted. 
The grade on high embankments before receiv.- 
ing ballast of gravel or cinders, should be made 
at least fourteen feet wide, and as much wider as 
is possible without too great an expense. 

WHEN TO BALLAST. 

4. On northern railroads, track should not be 
ballasted earlier than May 15th or June 1st. 
The ground should have time to settle, and the 
heaving to go down. 

BALLASTING. 

5. When a foreman is putting ballast under 
the track he should raise the track out of a face, 
taking out all light sags where there is enough 
material to do it. 



92 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 



Fig. 7. 

Section of Ballasted Track in a Rock Cut. 
















SUMMER T.RACK WORK. 


93 


RAISING TRACK. 

6. The following is one of the best methods 
of raising track to a level surface: 

Take a piece of board two inches by four in¬ 
ches and five feet long, place it across the track¬ 
way, and cut notches in it three inches deep, 
near the ends, so that it will fit between the 
track rails like a gauge. Put this board on a 
high place in the track about ten or twelve rail- 
lengths ahead of where you will commence to 
raise track, shim it up at the end to a perfect lev¬ 
el, at whatever height will be the top surface lev¬ 
el of the track rails after they are raised at that 
place; you may then go back and begin surfacing. 

Raise the first two joints on opposite side of 
track and tamp them level. Then lay the spirit 
level aside until you have all the track surfaced 
up between where you commenced to work and 
where you placed the sighting board across the 
track. 

When sighting track, have each joint raised 
and tamped one-fourth of an inch higher than* 
the top of the sighting board, and on reaching 
the last joint, raise and bring it to a level' with 
the finished track by striking down on the tie 
once or twice with a sledge, or other heavy tool. 
The center of the rail should only be raised to a 
level with the joints. 

The man sighting track should sit at least six¬ 
ty feet back of the joint which is being raised, 



94 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


and ninety feet back is better, because the long 
surface of rails raised assists the eye to more ac¬ 
curately sight a true and level line ahead. 
When track-men sight at the first joint back of 
the one which is raising, light sags are apt to get 
into the surface of the track unnoticed, as swings 
do when men stand too close to a place in track 
when they are lining. 

The above method is simple, less liable to varia¬ 
tion, and makes smoother and better track than 
when the spirit level is used on every rail joint, 
because the foreman does not have to test every 
joint with the level and keep the men idle while 
doing it, nor will he be so apt to pass over a 
joint which is not up to accurate surface with the 
others. Use two jacks when surfacing with a 
large gang of men, a heavy jack for the joints, 
and a lighter one for lifting the centers of the 
rails. Do not allow the jack men to lift up rail 
centers high enough to spring the rails, and al¬ 
ways have the jack set in ahead of the joint next 
to be raised, except when the rail is surface bent 
'in the quarter behind the joint, Tamp up the 
tie ahead of the joint with the joint tie when 
raising track more than two inches. This pre¬ 
vents the joints from hooking over and making 
it necessary to go back and raise them a second 
time. 

By adjusting a joint some distance ahead to 
the proper elevation or level and sighting the 
track into it—a curve track can be surfaced by 



SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


95 


the method described for straight track—Always 
sight curve-track along the inside of the rails. 
In that way you can see further and better. 
When making a run off for trains be sure to have 
it long enough to let them over it easily. Time 
can be saved by only tamping three ties solid 
ahead of the last joint raised. The material can 
be thrown loosely under the balance of the run 
off and the track let down upon it. 

Have your men well organized, each one work¬ 
ing in his proper place, and if you employ new 
men pair them with older hands. If you have a 
gang of fourteen or sixteen men work them as 
follows: Put two men tamping out ends of ties* 
on each side of the track, four men tamping the 
centers of ties inside the rails, and two men with 
the jack. The balance of the gang may be di¬ 
vided, a part of them filling in the ballast ahead 
of the men tamping and the others filling in be¬ 
hind the men tamping. If you work your men 
so that they will be about evenly divided on each 
side of the track they will be more apt to com¬ 
pete with each other and help forward the work. 
You can see at a glance whether each one per- 
forms his share of the work or not and you will 
also be prepared to finish up a piece of track 
quicker, when necessary, than if the men are al¬ 
lowed to straggle along and work where they 
please. 

For inexperienced men it is a good method to 
sight track over the tops of two small blocks 



THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


96 

which are of an equal height with the sighting 
board or a painted line upon it. .The man with 
the track-jack carries one block, and when the 
top of this block is placed on a rail-joint and 
comes up level with the sight-board and the top of 
the track-sighter’s block, the joint is high enough. 
These blocks are not used when sighting the cen¬ 
tre of the track-rail. 

RAISE BOTH SIDES. 

7. It is best to raise both sides at once when 
ballasting, as track raised and tamped on one 
side before it is on the other always has a space 
not tamped under the rail, on the first side, when 
the opposite side is brought up to level. 
The center of ballasted track should never be 
tamped solid, it will be enough to fill under the 
centre of the ties without tamping very solid. 
About eighteen inches inside the rails on each 
side of track, will be enough of the inside of the 
ties to tamp solid. 

SOLID CENTERS. 

8. Where the weight of the engine and the 
cars bears most on the centre of the ties, great 
numbers of them break, especially ties sawed 
square. On Northern roads when the frost is 
leaving the ground in the spring the ends of ties 



SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


97 


thaw out first and where they are very solid in 
the center they rock under the weight of a train 
and the track slides out of line. 

HIGH PLACES. 

9. Short high points in the track to be bal¬ 
lasted should not be raised at all if they are 
higher than the surfaced track, but should be let 
down, if this requires less labor than to surface 
up the track to the high point. 

UNIFORM TAMPING. 

10. The. secret of putting up good smooth 
track that will remain so a long time, lies in hav¬ 
ing your men well organized and in getting them 
to work as nearly alike as possible; uniformity in 
the work is everything. A first class track can 
be ballasted without tamping it with either tamp¬ 
ing pick, bar or shovel handle, where sand or 
gravel is used, by having the men put the ma¬ 
terial to place under all the ties with the shovel 
blade, tamping only the joint ties, and picking 
up the low places after the trains have passed 
over it. 


DRESSING BALLASTED TRACK. 

11. When the ballast is composed of gravel, 




THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


98 

sand, and loam, and only a small quantity is 
used, the track, when dressed up, should be filled 
in the center a little heavier than dirt ballasted 
track and the ballast gradually sloped off on both 
sides from the center of the track to a point at 
about half the thickness of the ties at the outer 
end. If the ballast used is coarse gravel, or cin¬ 
ders, and there is sufficient ballast under the 
track to drain it well, it is best when dressing the 
track, to fill up between the outer ends of the 
ties with ballast, leaving it level with the tops of 
the ties and then putting a good heavy shoulder 
of the ballast outside the ends of the ties, divid¬ 
ing the material evenly on each side of the track. 
The shoulder of track should be of a regular 
width. Where there is a surplus, put it at weak 
places. 


a day’s work. 

12. Sixty feet, or two rail lengths, of finished 
track ballasted per man, per day, is generally 
considered fair work for a surfacing crew. If 
possible, a foreman should finish up, before leav¬ 
ing for home, all the track raised during the day, 
as a heavy shower of rain, or a storm of snow or 
sleet will injure any track which is left open and 
not filled in the center between the ties. 

A little good-* judgment will enable any fore¬ 
man to so arrange the work, that, when him¬ 
self and his men get through work in the evening. 






SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


99 


the track where they were working will be in 
good shape, and safe, if they were not to return 
again for several days. It is very important 
that all track should be filled in and dressed up 
as fast as it is surfaced, in order to preserve a 
good line on the rails. Track which is not filled 
between the ties will not stay in line. The heav¬ 
ier a track can be filled without interfering with 
its drainage, the better it will stay in line, but no 
material should be piled upon or around the 
track ties which would in any way stop the free 
passage of water which falls on the track. 

REFUSE BALLAST IN CUTS. 

13. Only the cleanest of gravel ballast should 
be unloaded in cuts to ballast track with. 
Where it is necessary (in order to get rid of 
them in the pit) to haul out on the track, together 
with the gravel, large stones, grass, sods, etc., 
they should always be dumped on an embank¬ 
ment where they will assist in strengthening the fill. 
If they are placed in cuts they must be removed 
after the track is ballasted so that the time spent 
at this work is wasted. This lost labor amounts 
to considerable when many miles of ballast is 
handled. There are very few gravel pits where 
an occasional train of clean gravel cannot be 
procured and even where part of the train load 
is composed of poor material, when unloading it, 
the worst cars can be cut off and left outside the 






ICO 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


end of the cut, and the cleanest gravel unloaded 
in the cut. 


HAVE THE TRACK READY. 

14. When ballasting track or raising it to 
surface, the foreman should so arrange his work 
that he will have the track ready for trains when 
due to pass there. He should make a “run-off ” 
at the last rail of track raised, and outer ends of 
ties should at least be tamped up before a train 
is allowed to pass over it. The length of the 
“run-off ’’ should be in proportion to the height 
the track is raised. Never make a “run-off ” too 
short, it is better to flag a train and hold it until 
you are ready, than to risk surface, bending the 
rails, or wrecking the train. Foremen ballasting 
track should always protect themselves against 
wild trains by keeping a Hag out against them 
and off the time of regular trains. 


HIGH RAISING. 


15. When track is raised more than six inch¬ 
es high to put ballast under it out of a face, the 
foreman employed to do the work should be thor¬ 
oughly competent and reliable. One foreman 
should work the larger part of the surfacing 
gang, and with them lift the track, tamp the ties, 
and do a part of the filling, leaving the track be- 





SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


IOI 


hind him with a true surface, perfectly level, and 
in good line. Working some distance behind the 
first gang another foreman with a smaller crew 
of men should do the finishing work. He should 
carry, besides his other tools, a full set of tamp¬ 
ing bars and raise up to surface all depressions 
in the surface of the track made by trains which 
passed over it after the front gang left it. Every 
piece of track taken up to surface by the second 
gang, should be tamped solid to a perfect surface 
with tamping bars, they should also put a true 
line on the rails and fill in the balance of the 
gravel, and dress up the sides and center of the 
track, moving all surplus ballast with their push 
car to points along the line where it is needed to 
make the shoulder of a uniform width. 

% 

GRAVEL REQUIRED TO BALLAST A MILE OF TRACK. 

16. Allowing an average of thirty-three feet 
for each car length, including the space between 
the cars, one hundred-and-sixty-three. cars of 
gravel will reach over one mile of track. If 
this amount of gravel is unloaded by hand, or 
plowed off from the cars, which is a better way, 
and if the trains average about eight yards o/ 
gravel to the car, there will be gravel ballast de¬ 
posited along the track equal to six inches 
in thickness, twelve feet wide on top, and 
and twelve feet six inches wide at the bottom 
for the entire length of one mile of track. De- 



102 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


duct from the above amount of gravel about one 
half for filling between the track ties and for 
dressing the center of the track after it has been 
surfaced up, and there is still left a balance of 
about three inches in thickness to be put under 
the bottom or the track ties. 

If two cars of gravel are unloaded at one 
place, the depth of gravel ballast under the track 
ties is increased about three fold. 

The only loss from the second carload of 
gravel is about one-twelfth, which goes into the 
side slope of the shoulder of the fill. 

The second car leaves a load of gravel 8.J inches 
in thickness beneath the track ties. This is a good 
argument in favor of ballasting with not less 
than two carloads of gravel in a place. One car 
load in a place makes a very poor job, especially 
where it is put under the track without digging 
out the mud from between the ties. 

Where the sub-grade is well drained and solid, 
a first class track can be made by ballasting with 
two cars of gravel in a place, and to do the work 
in this way, estimates may be taken at the rate 
of three-hundred-and-twenty-five cars of gravel 
to the mile of track. The embankment should 
not be less than fourteen feet wide on top, and 
should be made sixteen feet wide, if possible, 
before putting on the gravel, to prevent the bal¬ 
last from washing away. 





SOMMER TRACK WORK. 


103 



LEVEL TRACK IN YARDS. 

17. The track in all yards should be surfaced 
level throughout their entire length, and all tracks 
running parallel with each other should be of the 
same height when possible to have them so. 
When tracks have once been put to a uniform 
level surface, no part of them should be raised 
again higher than the rest of the yard unless it 
is intended to raise the level of the whole yard. 
Many ignorant foremen, in charge of yards, think 
it is necessary every time they repair track, to 
surface it a little higher, and a difference of sev¬ 
eral inches in the heights of the tracks may be 
seen in some yards. This is a harmful and 
senseless policy and should not be tolerated. 

HOW TO LEVEL YARD TRACKS. 

18. A simple method by which to get tracks 
which run parallel to each other, to the same height, 
is as follows: First, put up the main track proper- 
erly, then use a straight edge from the nearest 
rail of the adjoining track in order to raise it to 
a level with the main track. You can then 
move to a point several rails ahead on the m&in 
track and repeat the operation. After this you 
can raise and sight, level the track on the siding 
between the two points which you have made lev¬ 
el with the main track. A foreman can level a 



104 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


track length way some what in the same way as 
above described. 

Rule — Run the level and a straight edge on 
the top of two or three stakes running parallel 
with the track to be leveled, and do the same at a 
place some distance from that point. Then sight 
over the tops of the stakes at both points, and 
have a man drive stakes between the two places 
where you have leveled, until the stakes which 
he has driven, are at the same height as those 
you have leveled with the level and straight edge. 
The top level of the stakes will be the level of 
the track rails. In important yards the com¬ 
pany’s engineers generally give level stakes for 
all tracks. 


GRAVEL PITS. 

19. A few words about the gravel pit will not 
be out of place in this book. 

On roads where stone, or other kinds of bal¬ 
last is scarce, or cannot be procured, a gravel pit 
along the line is very desirable. There are very 
few roads that cannot find at least one or two 
gravel pits along a division. 

After the gravel pit has been purchased, and 
when the work of removing the gravel is about 
to commence, the foreman in charge of the'work 
should thoroughly examine the lay of the land 
and find out how his track must be laid in order 
to get the deepest face of gravel to work on. 






SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


105 


Of course, at the same time, the best location 
for the track must be arranged for the accommo¬ 
dation of trains, and this should be done with a 
view to future improvements. 

’The track should always be longer than the 
face of the gravel in the pit, so that one, ten, or 
any number of cars could be loaded without dan¬ 
ger of spoiling the line of the pit face. This is 
very important, because where a short track is 
put in on account of a handy place to put in the 
switch, or for the reason that there is not much 
gravel needed at the time, the face of the pit 
contracts and becomes so short that the loading 
place is only like a sink hole in the ground, and 
it soon becomes difficult for an engine to pull out 
of the pit more than two or three cars at a time, 
making necessary six or seven switches to do what 
could be done in one,with a good track. Besides this, 
there are other reasons why a short track should 
not be used. The men loading the gravel keep 
lining the track over as the bank recedes and 
there is soon a heavy curve in the track which 
follows around the edge of the excavation, so 
that it is only a short time until the track has to 
be torn up and the work all done over again. 
Now is the time the loss occasioned by gouging 
a hole in the bank is discovered. If the track is 
laid along the face of the pit, cars can only be 
loaded at either end of the pit, and there is loss 
of time from placing cars, switching etc., and 
perhaps the two ends of the pit next the track 




io6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


are not long enough together to allow a full train 
of gravel to be loaded at once, and there is no 
help for it except to work at the ends of the pit 
until the gravel can be reached all along the 
track. 

Another argument in favor of a longer track, 
is that the face of the gravel can be increased in 
depth by lowering the track. 

Foremen in charge of loading gravel should 
see that the men load gravel in one place until 
there is a space on that side of the track at least 
two or three feet lower than the ties and 
wide enough to let the track into it. The track 
should then be lined over and the men could load 
on each side of the cars. Every foot that the 
face of gravel can be deepened, makes the cost 
of loading it less, and reduces the proportion of 
top soil which mixes with the gravel. Men load¬ 
ing gravel on cars will load more cars, if paid by 
the car, than in any other way. When the work of 
loading is not let to the men in the above way, 
the foreman should divide his gang so many men 
to each car; this makes them compete with each 
other. 

The steam shovel, with a sufficient number of 
gravel trains, of flat cars, and one or two plows 
and wire cables, is the best equipment to use, 
for economically getting out gravel from the pit, 
to the place where the track is to be ballasted. 




SUMMER TRACK WORK. 


107 


GRAVEL VS. WEEDS. 

20. When ballast is scarce or the business of 
a railroad will not warrant an expenditure equal 
to ballasting the whole road, it is a wise policy to 
put gravel ballast on a part of each section, 
more especially on long sections with only small 
gangs of men to keep up the track. When pos¬ 
sible, the gravel or other ballast should be put 
on that end of the section which is the farthest 
from the section foreman's headquarters. Be¬ 
sides the saving effected on a long section, by re¬ 
ducing the cost of cutting the weeds, the ballast¬ 
ed piece of track, being the best part of the road, 
will save for the company many hundreds of dol¬ 
lars which would otherwise be paid out for pump¬ 
ing a hand car the extra distance to and from 
work every day. The cost of cutting the weeds 
on eight miles of a dirt ballasted track for one 
season, on many railroad divisions, would pay 
for the loading and hauling of gravel, and putting 
in first class condition two miles of track or one 
fourth of the eight mile section. Putting the 
ballast under,the track in small quantities at a 
time in one place, need not cost the company 
anything extra, as the section crews can do this 
as well as cut the weeds, and in most cases the 
work will be better done than by an extra gang. 

It costs less to maintain a gravel track in first 
class condition, after it has been put up properly, 




io8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


than any of the other kinds, whether of mud, 
cinders or stone, and the ratio of cost increases 
from gravel to stone, as the ballasts are named 
respectively. 



FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


109 



CHAPTER IV. 

1, Turnouts, Fig. 8—2, Laying Switches—3, Split or Point 
Switches, Figs. 9 and 10—4, To Change a Stub to a Split 
Switch—5, Description and Table 1—6, Description and 
Table 2—7, Frogs, Fig. 11—8, Laying Frogs in Track— 
9, Length of Frogs—10, Guard Rails—n, If there is no 
Standard—T2, Switch Timbers—13, To Cut Switch Ties 
the Proper Length—14, Tamping Switch Ties— 15, Putting 
in Three Throw Switches—16, A Derailing of Switch, 
Fig. 12—17, Turnouts From Curves—18, To Reach a Side 
Track with a Reverse Curve Behind the Frog, Fig. 13—19, 
Round House Tracks—20, Another Method—21, Fig. 14, 
Cross over Tracks—22, Table of Distances Between 
Frogs in Crossover Tracks—23, Parallel Tracks—24, How 
to Ascertain the Kind of Frog Needed, Fig. 15—25, Spur 
Tracks—26, To Straighten Rails in Track. 

27, Laying New Steel— 28, How to Relay Iron or Steel— 29, 
Average Life of Iron or Steel Rails— 30, Even or Broken 
Joints— 31, Heavier Rails Wanted, Figs. 16 and 17—32, 
Effect of Heavy Locomotives and Cars on Track. 

TURNOUTS. 


1. A turnout is a curved track, by which a 
car may pass from one track to another, and 
consists of a frog, a rail leading to the frog, a 
corresponding opposite rail, and a device con¬ 
necting' these rails with the main track, called 
the ‘‘switch. ” If a switch is made to serve two 
turnouts, it is called a “three-throw switch, a 















THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


i io 


“trailing ” switch, is one where a train on the 
main track passes from frog to switch; while a 
“facing ’’ switch is one that approaches in the 
opposite direction. 

The common or “stub ” switch, consists of a 
pair of connected rails, A C, and B D, Fig. 8 , 
so arranged that while one end is fixed, the oth¬ 
er can be moved so as to be a part of either the 
main track, or turnout. The fixed end is called 
the “heel, "and is the beginning of the turnout 
curve. The other end is called the “toe, ” and 
the distance it moves in passing from main track 
to the turnout rails, is called the “throw. ” The 
toe rests on a large piece of timber, called the 
“head block, ” on which are placed the “head 
chairs, ” and “switch stand. ” The rails between 
the head block and frog, are called “lead rails. " 
The “total lead, ” includes the switch and lead 
rails, and should be a simple curve considered 
as joining the two long ends, one of them, IF, 
is the turnout line of the frog produced, until it 
intersects the opposite rail, the other I A, is the 
opposite rail. As two tangents to a curve from 
any point are equal, I F, and I A. are equal. 
The length of lead depends on the gauge and 
frog number, and is equal to the gauge multi¬ 
plied by twice the frog number. The switch 
rails are spiked for a certain part of their length, 
then when they are thrown, the free end will 
bend to an arc of a circle, and fit the line of 
lead. K L, and K L are called guard rails, 





FROGS AND SWITCHES. 



I I I 











112 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


M O, is the middle ordinate of the chord C F, 
and Q O and Q O’ quarter ordinates. 

The stub switch has two serious defects, one of 
which, is want of safety. Statistics show that 
fifty per. cent, of derailments are caused by de¬ 
fects and misplacements of stub switches. The 
second obiection is the necessary space at the 
end of the moving rails, which jars the rolling 
stock, batters the switch rails, and causes some 
discomfort to passengers. 

LAYING SWITCHES. 

2 . In laying switches, whenever possible locate 
the frog with a view to prevent cutting rails. 
After you have determined where the frog point 
will come, mark the place on the track rail, 
take from the turnout table the distance ' from 
the head block to point of frog corresponding 
to the number of the frog which is used, add 
to this the distance from the theoretical to the 
blunt point of frog, and you have the correct 
length of lead. The head block can now be lo¬ 
cated by measuring the total distance obtained 
ahead of the frog point. 

Make marks with chalk along on the flanges of 
the rail between the head block and frog, so that 
the switch ties can all be placed the proper dis¬ 
tance apart from center to center. After the 
switch ties have all been cut the proper length, 
lay them out alongside the track, and see that 





FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


”3 

each tie is numbered, and in its proper place as 
it will lay in the track. Then take out the cross 
ties and pull in each tie in regular order. 

When pulling the ends of the ties to line, time 
can be saved by using a gauge, made by nailing 
a cleat across a piece of board, allowing eighteen 
or twenty inches to project beyond the cleat. 
Have this gauge square at each end, lay it with 
the cleat against the end of each tie and draw a 
chalk line across the tie at the end of the board, 
marking all the ties the same length from the 
end. This chalk line should be at the outside 
flange ol the rail and have the spikes driven in it 
on the line side. When the ties are all in place 
under the track, the ends of all the ties will line 
uniformly. This is a much better way than 
measuring the end of each tie with a stick or the 
mual handle. The switch ties should be put in 
from either end, just as you have the time to spare 
between trains. If trains are running close to¬ 
gether begin at head block and select the time 
longest between trains to put in frog and lead. 
At least two long switch ties should be put in be¬ 
hind the frog to obviate the necessity of adzing 
and crowding short ties past each other where 
the two tracks separate. 

Before taking up a rail in main track, cut a 
rail of a length that, with the frog, will replace 
the rail taken up, and give you the necessary 
opening at the head chair joint, if a stub switch. 
Use two full length thirty foot rails for the slid- 




THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


1 14 


ing rails so that enough of the ends can be 
spiked safely beyond the cross rods. Have the 
cross rods an equal distance apart, and use five 

of them instead of four, if you can get them. 
Then put the head chairs in position under the 
ends of slide and lead rails. The lead rails 
should be properly curved or the switch can nev¬ 
er be kept in a good line. As soon as the lead 
rails are connected between frog and head chair, 
the main track should be spiked full, and put to 
a perfect level surface and line before the lead is 
permanently spiked. An experienced track man 
with good eye-sight, can line the lead curve, but 
it is better to lay it to ordinates first. 

Stretch a cord from point of frog to the toe of 
switch, see Fig. 8, and mark its center and quar¬ 
ter points. Spike the center to an ordinate of 
seven inches, and each of the quarters to an or¬ 
dinate of inches and you will have the true 
line of the lead curve. 

As soon as the rods are put on the slide rails 
and the main track is in line, the switch stand 
should be bolted to the head block and connect¬ 
ed to the rails. The gauge rail of the siding 
should be spiked to an accurate gauge the full 
length of the frog, the same as on the main track. 
But the curve beyond the frog may be allowed 
to vary a little from true gauge to prevent a kink 
showing opposite the frog, as would be the case 
if the whole turnout was spiked to accurate 
gauge. Next lay down the guard rails opposite 






FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


115 


the frog on each side, secure them to place and 
the switch is ready for use. 

If it is a point, instead of a stub switch, the 
method of proceedure is nearly the same. As 
the split rails are laid tangent to the curve, the 
degree of curve and ordinates of the lead will be 
slightly increased, and should be taken from ta¬ 
ble 1 1, if you are not furnished with plans from 
engineering departments. To make the stock 
rail for a split switch, cut a small piece out of 
the flange of the rail where you wish the angle, 
and bend it almost in the proportion of one in 
forty. This angle should be far enough ahead 
of the points to make gauge just ahead of points 
i inch wide. 

“split” or “point” switches. 

3. In -order to have an unbroken bearing for 
car wheels on the track rails, the “split, ” or 
point switch was devised. Fig,s. 9 and 10, show 

these switches in their simplest form. Fig. 9, 
shows the switch set for side track. Fig. 10, 

shows it set for main track. The rails, A B and 
G D, called “stock rails, ” are continuous and 
spiked their full length, the point rails, E and F, 
are usually fastened at their heels, H H, by fish¬ 
plates to the lead rails. The heels, in the split 
switch, are in the places occupied by the toes in 
the stub switch, or at head block. The split rails 
are generally fifteen feet long for all turnouts; it 






ii6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 



Fig. 10 


Fig. 9 


















































































FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


ii 7 

gives the best results, combining strength, ease 
of handling, and economy of manufacture^ thir¬ 
ty foot rail makes two.) As a rule they are 
straight, and planed, so that they bear against the 
rail six or seven feet. The throw of the point is 
about 4J or 5 inches, and the clear space at the 
heels between gauge lines is about the same dis¬ 
tance. 

By introducing a spring or other device in the 
switch stand, a split switch is sometimes made a 
safety switch, so that when they are set against 
a train trailing them, the wheels will push the 
points aside and leave an unbroken rail for the 
wheels. 

The first cost of a point switch is more than 
a stub switch, but the split switch is more eco¬ 
nomical to maintain and safer, making it the 
cheaper in the end. There can be no question 
that it is superior to the stub switch, and is fast 
superceeding it all over the United States.* 

TO CHANGE A STUB TO A SPLIT SWITCH. 

4. The attachments necessary to make the 
change from a stub to a split switch, are as fol- 

*There is no necessity for using short guard rails just 
ahead of the points in a split switch. There is no elements 
of safety existing in the guard rail, when the throw of switch 
is more than four inches, and when guard rails are used as 
a protection against wear on the points. The saving effect¬ 
ed, will rarely compensate for the use of so much extra 
material. 





118 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER, 


lows: Two rails, generally 15 feet in length, 
with a part of the top and side of the ball of 
the rails at one end planed off to a point, hence 
the name point or split rails. 

Next: There are four cross rods which are 
used to connect the two split rails, and are bolted 
to the rails either at the flange or through the 
web of the rails. These rods are generally num¬ 
bered from the head rod back, the head rod num¬ 
ber one, besides connecting the split rails are al¬ 
so arranged to be connected to the switch stand 
and moves the switch. The other rods must 
then be placed in the order indicated by their 
number. 

There are also wrought iron plates furnished, 
which are placed along on the top of the switch 
timbers under the split rails to enable them to 
slide over the flange of the main rails and lay up 
close against it. When the switch is thrown to 

either side, four of these wrought iron plates 
have an offset in them. The thick part is placed 
under the split rail and the thin end reaches out 
under the main rails. Two of these plates are 
placed on each side of the track and one on 
each side of the head rod. The other plates are 
spiked down on the timbers further back from 
the point with their end under the split rails and 
close up against the inner flange of the main 
rails. 

When the throw of the split switch is the same 
as the stub switch, the same switch stand will do 



FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


1 19 


for either. Bat if the split switch is to have a 
different throw, to comply with a standard, the 

switch stand must be adjusted to throw the 
switch a proper distance. The difference of half 
an inch in the throw of a switch stand, or the 
length of the cross rods will make an inch differ¬ 
ence in the gauge of track at the points. 

When you are ready to begin the work of 
changing the switch, lay down the two split rails 
upon a couple of pieces of timber, close to the 
track in the same position they would occupy in 
track and let one of your men bolt the cross 
rods to the split rails securely, measure with your 
tape line fourteen and a half feet from the head 
chair joint of the stub switch along the moving 
nails and mark this as the place where the head 
rod of the split switch will come, you can then 
remove a couple of ties, and if a double head 
block is required, you can put them in, one on 
each side of where the head rod will be, with a 
space of about four inches between them. If 
only one head block is necessary, put it on which¬ 
ever side of the head rod that will best accom¬ 
modate the switch stand. While some of the 
men are doing the work specified, others may be 
removing the head chairs, tie rods and head 
block and other connections of the stub switch. 

One of the side rails of the stub switch, which 
is on the side track side of the main track, is 
named the stock rail in a split switch. This rail 
should be taken out of the track and bent at a 




120 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


point a short distance ahead of the point of split 
rail. It should then be pat back in the track and 
bolted to the main rail at one end, and to th e 
outside rail of the side track at the other end. 
This rail should be bent carefully, so that it will 
be perfectly straight from the point of split rail, 
back to a point square with the heel of the split 
rail. I he opposite joint in the main track, 
should then be secured with bolts and fastenings. 
Next, lift the split rails and lay them into the 
track, connecting their heel ends, one with the 
rail leading to the frog the other with the main 
rail on the side track side, and as soon as you 
have spiked the tie plates along under the split 
rails and made connection with the head rod and 
switch stand, the switch is complete. 

As an additional precaution against track 
spreading enough to prevent the points laying 
close to the main rails, a rail brace may be spiked 
down outside the main rails, just ahead of the 
switch points. The heel of a split switch is at 
the head block of a stub swdtch, and the instruc¬ 
tions here given, are based on the assumption 
that the length of the stub switch lead from the 
head block to the frog point is correct, before 
changing the switch. 

The heel of the split swatch, should be square 
with the main rail, and the distance between 
gauge lines should be the same on both sides of 
the track. 





FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


121 


DESCRIPTION OF TABLE I. 

5. Turnout Table I gives all the data necessary 
for lay out turnouts, whether single or double, 
from straight track or curves, and for any frog 
number. In the first column are given frog num¬ 
bers, increasing by halves from 5 to 12; the 
angles corresponding to them in the second col¬ 
umn. In the third column will be found the 
distance, C F, Fig. 8, from point of frog to head 
block or heel of switch. In the 4th the length 
of switch rail for a 5 inch throw. Column 5, 6 
and 7 show respectively the tangent, radii and 
degree of curvature. Column 8 and 9 show re¬ 
spectively the middle, and quarter ordinates of 
the chord, C F, Fig. 8. Column 10 and 1 1 
gives a rate of change in the middle and quarter 
ordinates per degree of main track curve, and is 
to be added or subtracted respectively, as the 
turnout is laid with or against the main track 
curve. Column 12 gives the distance from head 
block to middle frog point within throw switches. 
Column 13 and 14 shows the middle frog angles 
and their corresponding numbers. 




,BLE I.-Switch Rails, Curved; Cause 4 Ft. 8 1-2 In.; Throw of 
Switch 5 Inches. 


122 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 


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FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


123 


DESCRIPTION OF TABLE II. 


6. Turnout Table II is calculated for a point 
rail 1 5 feet long, laid tanget to the turnout curves 
at its heel. The angle in the stock rail is 1 de¬ 
gree and 26 minutes or the proportion of 1 in 40. 
It will be noticed that the degree of curvature is 
slightly increased, and the total head shortened. 

In these tables where distances are given to 
frog points, it is to the true point, and the dif¬ 
ference between the true and blunt point is to be 
added each time. But it is not necessary to 
cut a rail when putting in a switch if the total' 
length is but a few inches more or less than the 
leads given in the table. 


TABLE 2.—Ordinates and Chords to Locate Turnout 
Rail Between Point of Frog and Point or Split 
Switch; Gauge 4 Ft. 8 1-2 In.; Switch Rail 15 Ft. 
Long; Switch Angle I Degree, 25 Minutes. 


.0 


5 

51/2 

6 

6I/2 

7 

71/2 

8 

81/2 

9 

91/2 

10 
101/2 
11 

111/2 

12 




bi 

bJ? 

o 

Sh 


0 






be 



0 


a) 

Lh • 



fe,G 


Lh 

O 



C +-> 


0 

0 ; 


5*—1 

^ C/2 


O 

=4—1 

03 

a? 

O 


0) 

r-l _i 

•r—< 

S~ 

O ® 


bJC 

,£3 « 

Cw 


CJ HH 

03 

« 


■Q 

b£ 

o> 3 

•<-- i-l 

C'JO 

02 

o>H 

S a 
2 3 


.a 

. bo 

£•3 

.5 /) 

■g-i 

Ch r> 
ft 

§'3 


Sfi a 

. ^ rd 
G 
—■ 

I 

>■ 

— P tn 

fiSs 
0"a O 


bWiS 

^ 1/ L 

Fh *s 

^ C 3 
•= 

ap 1 

bc 5 £ 

G S3 

g’S 0 

fG =*H 
GO o 


Deg 

Min 

Ft 

In. 


Deg. 

Min 

Ft. 

In. 

Ft. 

In 

Ft. 

In. 

Ft. 

In. 

11 

25 

38 

4 

217.85 

20 

32 

0 

10 

0 

71/2 

0 

01 

0 

0;i'.V 

10 

23 

41 

8 

201.53 

21 

47 

0 

92 

0 

75/8 

0 

0A 

0 

Op 

9 

32 

44 

111/4 

55/s 

315 98 

18 

13 

0 

9 is 

0 

71/8 

0 

04 

0 

os 

8 

48 

48 

372.42 

15 

20 

0 

9/s 

0 

7 

0 

os 

0 

Oil 

8 

10 

51 

31/H 

433.83 

13 

14 

0 

9 ,-Vi 

0 

044 

0 

op 

0 

() 1 7 

7 

38 

54 

4 

500.43 

11 

28 

0 

8H 

0 

65/s 

0 

op 

0 

0 1 9 

7 

09 

57 

4 

572 21 

10 

00 

0 

8S 

0 

61/2 

0 

04 

0 

Op 

6 

44 

80 

3H 

019.43 

8 

50 

0 

8 S 

0 

01/4 

0 

op 

0 

op 

6 

22 

03 

1% 

732.30 

7 

50 

0 

84 

0 

61/8 

0 

1 ,’rt 

0 

n 25 
D 35 

0 

02 

05 

113/4 

821 08 

0 

59 

0 

71 S 
* 1 »> 

0 

0 

0 

1 3 \ 

0 

02 7 
U 3*2 

5 

41 

03 

9 

915 05 

0 

10 

0 

71 1 
• 1 6 

0 

53/4 

0 

u 

0 

01 5 

His 

5 

27 

71 

51/2 

1010.50 

5 

38 

0 

74 

0 

55/8 

0 

1 11 

0 

1 

5 

12 

74 

11/2 

1123.88 

5 

00 

0 

7.1 

0 

51/o 

0 

1 7 - 
1 1 f> 

0 

Ip 

4 

59 

70 

87/h 

1237.83 

4 

33 

0 

74 

0 

53-8 

0 

lp 

0 

ljAf 

4 

40 

79 

31/2 

1358.44 

4 

13 

0 

64 

0 

51/8 

0 

in 

0 

H 




























124 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


FROGS. 

7. A frog is a contrivance for allowing the 
wheels of a car to cross a rail. 

Fig. 1 1 is an outline diagram of a-frog. The 
triangle, A C E, is tongue, C E is the heel of 
the tongue. The channel at K is the mouth. 
Its narrow part, F H, is the throat. The wings, 
F G, and H I, support the treads of the wheels 
from the point, B, to the throat. L M is the 
heel of the frog. The angle is the divergence 
of the lines, A C and A E. The intersection of 
the lines at A is the true point of the frog. As 
this point is too weak for service, it is rounded off 
where the tongue is about one-half inch wide. 
The frog number is the ratio of the base, C E, to 
the perpendicular, A D, the length of the point. 
Thus, if the length, A D, be 7, 9 or 10 times C 
E, the frog is called a No. 7, 9. or 10 frog. 

Crossing frogs are used where one track 
crosses another. They are generally supported 
by long ties for the smaller angles, and heavy 
tramed timbers for the larger angles. The near¬ 
er the angle approaches 90°, the more difficult 
they are to maintain, owing to the wheels drop¬ 
ping into the space left for the other road. 
Where one road is double tracked, the frogs are 
difficult to keep in line, owing to the tracks of 
the double line often creeping in opposite direc¬ 
tions. 




FROGS AND SWICHES. 


125 


1 true point.. 

BLUNT POINT 

1 1 



LAYING FROGS IN TRACK. 

8 . When putting frogs into a track care 
should be taken to have them in a true line and 
level with the track rails which are connected to 
them. The gauge rail, opposite the frog should 
be put to a perfect gauge for the full length of 
the frog. In sharp turnouts, when all of the 
track at the frog and running each way from it 
is put to a perfect gauge, there is left opposite 
the frog an uglv looking kink in the gauge rail. 
This is caused by the track at the frog being nec¬ 
essarily straight. It does not correspond with 
the curve line which runs each way from the 
frog. This can be remedied without injuring the 
track by spiking the curve track enough wide 
gauge to have it line true with the track at the 
frog. To have a perfect gauge along the frog, 
the gauge should be tried at each end of the frog 
and again about six inches back of the point of 
frog. When long frogs are used and there is 







126 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


very little curve in switch lead, the track can be 
spiked to a proper gauge and the kink, spoken of 
as showing at the frog, will not be perceptible. 
Foremen should see that frogs are not allowed 
to fill up with ice or snow in the winter season 
and when foot guards for the protection of train¬ 
men are provided, section foremen should see 
that they are always kept properly in place to 
prevent any liability of accident. 

LENGTH OF FROGS. 

9. Fong frogs and long switch leads are the 
best where it is practicable to use them, the 
rails in short switch leads soon wear out. If the 
switch lead is long, the saving effected in the 
wear of the rails and rolling stock more than 
compensates for the loss of the extra amount of 
steel in the long frog when worn out. A valua¬ 
ble feature in a frog is to have it of such a length 
that very little cutting of rails is necessary when 
putting in a new switch. Where full length rails 
can -be used in a switch it saves time, labor and 
material. 


GUARD RAILS. 


10. The guard rail at switches is used to pre¬ 
vent the car and locomotive wheels from cross¬ 
ing the point of the frog when trains are passing 



FROGS AND SWICHES. 


i 27 


through the switch. The length and shape of a 
guard rail adopted as the standard should be 
used with all frogs in service on the same road. 

No guard rail should exceed ten feet in length, 
except when a piece of rail is used for the pur¬ 
pose which happens to be a few inches longer, 
when it would not pay to cut off the surplus. A 
shorter guard rail than the length given above 
may be used, but it should be secured solidly, 
beyond the possibility of displacement. Enough 
of the middle of the guard rail should be spiked 
down parallel with the track rail, opposite the 
point of the frog, to cover the distance from 

where the side wings separate at the throat of 
the frog, back to the frog point. This is an am¬ 
ple protection. The guard rail may be secured 
by spiking it to the ties, and by passing a bolt 
through the guard rail and track rail at each side 
of that part which is parallel with the track rail, 
leaving between the two rails a wheel channel. 
This makes it unnecessary to use braces except 
as additional precaution. Iron spools or wash-, 
ers may be used on the bolts between the webs 
of the guard and track rails, to regulate the 
width of the wheel channel, which should never 
be more than two inches on a standard guage 
track. 

The extreme ends of the guard rail should be 
spiked to the ties at a distance of four inches 
from the track rail. But may be laid an inch 
closer to track rail if the end is bent round to- 




128 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


wards center of track. This will give the wheels 
an easy and gradual approach to the narrower 
space where the rails are parallel. Guard rails 
should not be sprung to the place with the track 
spikes but-should be bent to the proper shape 
before being laid. 

When guard rails are made in the company’s 
shops their ends should be heated and hammer¬ 
ed down to form a gradual approach or slanting 
surface from the base of the rail, where it rests 
on the ties, to the top. This would prevent 
brake beams, chains, or snow plows, etc., from 
catching on the end of the guard rail and tear¬ 
ing it out of place. It would be well to take the 
same precaution with the ends of guard rails 
which cross bridges or go around curves inside the 
rails on main track. 

IF THERE IS NO STANDARD. 

ii. Where there is no standard guard rail 
used on a railroad, and the track foremen have 
to provide the guard rails wanted, when they put 
in a new switch, the piece of rail which is cut 
from a full length rail to let in the frog will do to 
make a guard rail, and when long enough should 
always be used for a guard rail in preference to 
cutting another good rail. Very long guard rails 
are a waste of material and fastenings, which 
could be put to better use at some place else on 
the road. Long guard rails are always difficult 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


129 


to keep in place, especially on sharp turnouts, 
because where ten, twelve, or fifteen feet of 
guard rail is spiked down parallel with the track 
rail, as is often the case, the drivers of an en¬ 
gine or the wheels of a car truck are all at one 
time in the narrow wheel channel, and cannot 
curve properly. They therefore wrench and 
twist the guard rail, while the wheel base is held 
in a straight line. This wears the rolling stock, 
besides making it more difficult for an engine to 
pull a train through the switch. The width of 
the wheel channel between the guard rail and 
track rail should never be more than one eighth 
of an inch wider than the wheel channel through 
the frog. If the wheel channel between the 
guard rail and track rail is one quarter inch or 
more wider than the frog channel, car wheels 
with sharp flanges are very apt to climb the frog 
point, and run off the track, especially if the 
guard rail side of the track is the highest. The 
frog point always shows wear on whichever side 
the guard rail is too wide. 

To make a guard rail properly, take a ten foot 
piece of iron or steel rail, and bend it uniformly 
from the central part towards the ends, until a 
cord stretched along the face of it shows a mid¬ 
dle ordinate of two inches from a point on the 
gauge side of the rail at its center to the middle 
of the cord. It will then be ready for spiking 
down and need not be sprung at any place. 





THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


I 3° 


SWITCH TIMBERS. 

12. As there is considerable difference in the 
standards for bills of switch timbers on the dif¬ 
ferent railroads, the following rules will be useful 
to track foremen. 

Rule to ascertain the number of pieces need¬ 
ed for any switch lead. Find the distance from 
the head block to the point where the last 
long tie will be used behind the frog. Reduce 
this distance to inches, and divide it by the num¬ 
ber of inches from the center of each tie to that 
of the next one. This will give the number of 
ties wanted. 

Example: Distance from the head block to 
the last long tie behind the frog, 55 feet; reduced 
to inches, 660 inches; distance from center to 
center of ties, 20 inches; number of ties required, 

33- 

The first three of these ties next the head 
block may be common long oak cross ties, and as 
9 feet is the shortest piece sawed square for a 
switch tie, and 14 feet the longest for a single 
throw switch, the other 30 pieces may be divid¬ 
ed up, when ordering the different lumber lengths, 
as follows: 

5 pieces, 9 foot long 5 pieces, 1 2 foot long 

5 “ to “ “ 5 “ 13 “ “ 

5 “ 11 5 “ 14 “ “ 

When odd lumber lengths of switch timbers 
are not furnished, then order double the quanti- 






FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


131 


ty, 10, 12 and 14 foot pieces. In large yards 
where there is very heavy traffic, switch timbers 
should not be laid more than 8 or 9 inches apart. 
A switch that is well put in with timbers under it 
8 inches apart will wear out in the rails without 
needing any repairs in the surface, but when or¬ 
dering switch timbers foremen should always be 
governed by whatever standard is in force on the 
road. 


TO CUT SWITCH TIES THE PROPER LENGTH TO LINE. 


13. Rule.— Measure the length of the tie 
next the head block and also the length of the 
last tie behind the frog. Find the difference in 
inches between the lengths of the two ties, di¬ 
vide this amount by the number of ties in the 
switch lead, and the quotient should be the in¬ 
crease in length per tie from the head block to¬ 
wards the frog, to have the ties line evenly on 
both sides of the track. 

Example: We will suppose the tie next to 
the head block to be 8 feet 6 inches, or 102 in¬ 
ches in length, and the last tie behind the frog, 
14 feet, or 168 inches in length. The difference 
in the lengths of these two ties is 5 feet 6 inches, 
or 66 inches; dividing by 33, the number of ties, 
gives two inches as the amount that each tie 
must be longer than the last. Section foremen 
will find this rule valuable in many cases, especi- 




13 - 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ally when putting in a cross over from one track 
to another. There is nothing gained by having 
switch ties project beyond the proper line of 
track. They cause trouble in raising track, are 
unsightly, and labor is only wasted in tamping 
up the long ends. The switch ties may be cut 
off the proper length and numbered with chalk* 
and the line side marked for the rail flange be¬ 
fore put in the track. The work can be done in 
that way quicker and better, and the unnecessary 
labor of digging out for and tamping up long ends 
can be dispensed with. 

TAMPING SWITCH TIES. 

14. When a switch track has been raised up 
to surface the track at that place, the switch 
ties, along under the frog and main track rail, 
should be tamped up first. The long ends of 
switch ties should be tamped up last, and then not so 
solid as those under the frog. Tamping bars should 
be used in tamping up a switch, and special care 
should be taken to make the ties as solid as pos¬ 
sible under the frog. A switch is all the better if 
the frog is a shade higher than the balance of 
the switch. Head blocks should also be a little 
stiff ; a quarter of an inch higher than the level of 
the track rails will do no harm, and will soon 
come down to level on a stub switch, if the out 
ends of switch ties are tamped up first, unless 
the timbers are very large, they will sag down in 



*33 


FROGS AND SWITCHES. 

the center and the ends will turn up, especially 
if a train is allowed to pass over the switch be¬ 
fore the ties are tamped throughout their lenght. 
A set of switch timbers may be put into a mud 

t 5. t i 

track very quickly, and with little or no tamping, 
by the following method. Remove all the old 
timbers except a few to support the track rails. 
Raise the raiis on the supporting ties about a 
quarter of an inch higher than the track surface, 
and level them with a spirit level. Clear away 
a bed for the timbers equal to their depth, and 
spread a little loose dirt on it, then pull in the 
timbers keeping their upper surface close up to 
the rails and each timber level throughout its 
length until it is in place. 


PUTTING IN DOUBLE THROW SWITCHES. * 

15. The length of switch ties in a three-throw 
switch is found by doubling the set for a single 
turnout, and subtracting the length of the stand¬ 
ard cross-tie. When putting them in the track, 

*There is a great deal of time, labor and track material 
saved in the use of three throw switches, or what is called 
double throw switches. They are also convenient at points 
where track room is scarce. 

If a switch comes on an embankment, the amount of 
grading is much less for a three throw switch, than for two 
single throws. Freight trains can be switched and made up in 
station order in about half the time required with single 
switches. And the use of threes throw switches at way sta¬ 
tions enables freight trains to do their work quicker and 

make much better time in getting over the road. J. K. 

• : 





134 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


measure the length of each tie and draw a chalk 
line across the middle; mark also the middle of 
the gauge. Lay the gauge on the main track, 
and as each tie is put under the track, see that 
the chalk mark across the middle of the tie comes 
directly under the middle of the gauge. The 
proper angle, number and distance from the head 
block of the middle frog is given in table No. I. 
The number of the middle frog is found by mul¬ 
tiplying the number of the principal frogs by the 
decimal .707, and its distance from the head 
block is found by dividing the radius by twice 
the middle frog number, and subtracting the 
length of switch rail. If there is no frog of the 
angle corresponding to the angle of the prin¬ 
cipal frogs at hand, select one as nearly like it as 
possible, and calculate its distance ahead of the 
head block. The line of the lead rails will then 
be a compound curve. 

DERAILING SWITCHES. 

16. Fig. 12, illustrates a method for derailing 
cars, and is used in cases where extra precau¬ 
tions are required to prevent cars from accident¬ 
ally running out of the siding upon the main 
track. 

It consists of a head block, a low switch stand 
with a connecting rod attached to the outside 
rail, C D, near the end of the curve on the sid¬ 
ing, and a head chair, E, to receive the ends of 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


135 



the rails, B and C. Connection is broken by 
throwing the switch which moves the moving 
rail, C D, inward. This guides the derailed car 
away from the main track. When putting in 
this derailing switch, drive a row of spikes 
against the inside flange of the rail, C D, when 
set for derailing; and place rail braces on the out¬ 
side to support and keep the rail in place, when 
set for the side track. It is good policy to use 
good sound oak ties, spaced not more than eight 
inches apart under the moving rail. It presents 
a smoother surface for the derailed car than ties 
spaced the ordinary way, and prevents the wheels 
from sinking between them. 

This switch has less parts and is more econom¬ 
ical than a derailing switch with two moving rails 
connected with rods. When T ro P er ^y secured 
with a hinge joint or pivot, and working on a sol¬ 
id plate throughout its length, a much shorter 
sliding rail can be used. A point rail can be used, 
and the end of the rail at B can be slightly 











THE TRACKMAN’S HELPE'R. 


136 

turned outward, but there is no advantage in its 
use except to make it work lighter when automatic 
connection is made with the main track switch. 

When setting up switch-stand, have the target 
show danger, when the switch is set for derailing. 

TURNOUTS FROM CURVES. 

17. In turnouts from curves, the lead distance 
is practically the same as turnouts from a 
straight track. The degree of curve of the turn¬ 
out is approximately increased by the degree of 
the main track curve, when the turnout is with 
the curve; and decreased the degree of the main 
track curve, when the turnout is against the 
curve. In turnouts against curves, when the de¬ 
gree of the main track curve is the same as the 
turnout curve corresponding to the frog, the lead 
will be almost straight; when greater, the lead curve 
will deflect the same direction as the main track 
curve. As curves for ordinary frog numbers are 
sharp, avoid as much as possible turnouts from 
the inside of the curve. 

The ordinates of the chord Fig. 8 will be in¬ 
creased a certain rate per degree of main track 
curve, when the turnout is laid with the curve; 
and decreased the same rate per degree when the 
turnout is laid against the curve. 

Example. —A turnout with a curve; degree of main 
track curve 2 degrees; frog No. 9. Here degree of curve of 
turnouts deg. -f- 7 deg. 31 m. = 9 deg. 31 m. Middle or- 
dinate=ii;- 16X2=1 inches; added to7inches=8% inches. 





FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


137 


Quarter ordinate = 11-16X2=1 yi inches; added to 5 %. inches 
=6^i inches. 

Example. —A turnout against a curve; degree of main 
track curve 4 deg.; frog No. 8. Here degree of turnout= 
9 deg. 31 m. —4 deg. = 5 deg. 31 m. Middle ordinate= 
^X4=3 inches; subtracted from 7 inches=4inches. Quar- 
tes ordin.ate=9-i6X4= : 2X inches; subtracted from 5% 
inch es=3 inches. 


TO REACH A SIDE TRACK WITH A REVERSE CURVE 

BEHIND THE FROG, 

18. The simplest and most economical meth¬ 
od for laying out a side track, along which build¬ 
ings are located, is to continue the lead curve 
.back of the frog to a point which would be mid¬ 
way between the tracks if they paralleled each 
other. Then reverse the curve and join it 
with the tangent on side track at a point the 
same distance from the reversing point as the 
switch point is in the opposite direction, as shown 
in Fig. 13. 

Rule.— When laying out the side track paral¬ 
lel with the main track, continue setting center 
stakes as if for a tangent from A to B, Fig. 13, 
making the latter point come at right angles with 
C, which is the point of switch already located 
in main track. 

Then measure accurately the distance between 
the stakes, B and C, and set a stake at D, mid¬ 
way between them. The point, R, may be found 
by running a line of stakes from D to F, parallel 
with main track. 






138 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 










FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


139 


After yourhaveTaid The-switch -and side track 
curve as far as R, then measure the distance, R 
F, making it equal to the distance, R D, and set 
the stake at right angles with F at A, which will 

mark the end of curve on the side track. A stake 
may be set at E, for convenience in locating the 

point, F, and the angle, F A, or C D, may be 
squared fairly well by using a common track guage, 
laid across the rails at C or E, on the main track. 
There is a great deal of good track room wasted, 
where side tracks are put in with a long tangent 
behind the frog and the method here illustrated has 
advantages where land is valuable, and it also 
economizes material. But I would not recom¬ 
mend the use of curves above 6 degrees. Be¬ 
cause the track is not as safe. Is more difficult 
to keep in repair, and the rails wear out much 
sooner on sharp curves. 

ROUND HOUSE TRACKS. 

19. To locate the frog point for round house 
tracks, find the distance between and including 
the tops of the two adjoining rails* in two stalls 
of the house. Any point where you have laid 
the rails will do to measure this distance; near 
the house doors is a good place. We will sup¬ 
pose this distance to be twelve feet. 

The frogs about to be used are four feet or 48 
inches in.length from point to heel, and the ex¬ 
treme width of the heel is, say, eight inches. 



140 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


By dividing the length, 48 inches, by the width 
of the heel, you find the frog to be a number 

six, as the rails deflect from each other one inch 
in six, or one foot in six feet, two feet in twelve, 
four feet in twenty-four, eight feet in forty-eight, 
and twelve feet in a distance of seventy-two, etc. 

This shows that the point of frog must be lo¬ 
cated seventy-two feet ahead from the point 
where measurements were taken,, at , which place 
the rails were twelve feet apart. But to locate the 
frog point accurately, two lines should be 
stretched along the gauge side of the two track 
rails running out of adjoining stalls. Carry 
them in a straight line to the turn table; This 
will cause them to cross each other where the 
frog point should be located. Stretch the lines 
tight and lay the frog down under them and 
spike it to the ties. 

In order to get the true point of a frog the 
lines should touch the gauge side of it through¬ 
out its full length, and the correct point is where 
the lines cross each other, not the end of the 
steel point. After the frog is located the rail 
connections behind it may be made, and if the 
other frogs are of the same angle as the first one, 
they should all be placed the same distance from 
the turn table and spiked accurately to gauge. 
But if the frogs are of different angles (which 
should not be the case) they will need to be laid 
at different distances from the turn table propor¬ 
tionate to their angles. 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


141 


ANOTHER METHOD. 

t • 

20. The frogs which lead from the turn table 
into the round house may also be located in the 
following manner. Draw two cords along the 
gauge side of the nearest rails in two adjoining 
stalls and cross the lines before reaching the turn 
table. Then stretch the cords tight, holding the 
end of each at the middle of one of the track 
rails on the center of the turn table. Swing the 
turn table into line with one of the stalls, and 
while it is held in this position mark the place 
where the two lines cross each other. The place 
so marked will be the point of your first frog. 
The other frogs will all be right if placed the 
same distance from the turn table as the first 
one, and spiked accurately to gauge. 

CROSS OVER TRACKS. 

21. To put in a cross over from one track to an¬ 
other where the work has not been laid out by an 
engineer: 

Rule.— Put in the first frog and switch lead 
complete on one track. Then sight a straight 
line along the gauge rail from opposite the point 
of frog, which you have just put in track, to the 
nearest rail of the adjoining track. Where the 
line crosses the rail is where the point of the 
next frog ought to be located to complete the 




142 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 


crossover if both frogs are of the same angle. 

Another method when same size frogs are used. 
Take the difference between the gauge lines of 
the inside rails and the gauge of track, multiply 
the remainder by the frog number, and the re¬ 
sult will be the distance measured along the 
track, Fig. 14, as D C, or A B. 

Ex.—Distance between gauge lines of middle rails 7 ft. 
Frog No. 9. Distance between frog points equals 7 ft. 
less 4 ft. 8 in’s. =2 ft. 3 V 2 in’s.; 2 ft. 3^ in’s. Xg=20 ft. 7^ 
in’s. 

If frogs of different angles are used in a cross¬ 
over, say a No. 10 and a No. 7, figure by rule 
the distance required for a pair of No. 10 frogs, 
also the distance for a pair of No. 7 frogs. Then 
add half the distance of the number 10 frog to 
half the distance of the number 7 frog, and the 
total amount is the distance required between 
frog points.* 

This principle will apply correctly to any case 
of variation in frog angles. 

The lead curves, corresponding to the frog an¬ 
gles in a crossover, should be carried a proper 
distance beyond the frogs until they meet and 
reverse between the tracks. 

TABLE OF DISTANCES BETWEEN FROG POINTS IN 

CROSSOVER TRACKS. 

22. The following table shows the distance 

*Sharp curves should not be put in a crossover except 
when it is absolutely necessary to do so, in order to conven¬ 
iently locate a switch. 








FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


143 


















144 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


between frog points diagonally in any crossover 
track put in with the frogs mentioned in the ta¬ 
ble, for distances between tracks of 7 to 1 5 feet. 
Where the distance between two tracks is great¬ 
er than 15 feet, foremen can calculate the dis¬ 
tance between the frog points by the rules pre¬ 
ceding this table: 


Numbers 

of 

DISTANCE BETWIEST TRACKS. 

Fiu^s. 

7 ft 

8 ft. 

9 ft. 

10 ft. 

11 ft. 

12 ft. 

13 ft. 

14 ft. 

15 m 

\ 


Jt. in. 

ft. in. 

ft. in. 

ft. in. 

ft. in. 

ft. in. 

ft. in 

ft. in. 

ft in. 

1 to 5. 

11 6 

16 6 

21 6 

26 6 

31 6 

36 6 

41 6 

46 

50 6 

1 to 6. 

13 6 

19 9 

25 9 

31 9 

38 

44 

50 

56 

62 

1 to 7. 

16 

23 

30 

37 

44 

51 

58 

65 

72 

1 to 8. 

18 4 

26 4 

34 4 

42 4 

50 4 

58 4 

66 4 

74 4 

82 4 

1 to 9. 

.20 8 

29 8 

38 8 

47 8 

56 8 

65 8 

74 8 

83 8 

92 8 

1 to 10. 

23 

33 

43 

53 

63 

73 

OO 

<X 

93 

103 

1 to 11. 

25 3 

36 3 

47 3 

58 3 

69 3 

80 3 

91 3 

102 3 

113 3 

1 to 12. 

27 (5 

39 6 

51 6 

63 6 

75 6 

87 6 

99 6 

111 6 

123 6 


As the above table gives the distance in feet 
from a point on the gauge rail opposite the point 
of the first frog to the point of the frog in the 
next switch of the crossover track, the length of 
the second frog from point to heel must be de¬ 
ducted from the distance given, when preparing 
the rails which cross between the tracks. 

A reverse curve can be made longer in the 
crossover between tracks when they are very far 
part, and there is not room to put it in the regu¬ 
lar way. 







































FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


145 


PARALLEL TRACKS. 

23. Where a track runs diagonally from a 
main track and it is used to throw off switches 
from, and if the tracks from such switches is to 
run parallel to the main track, inexperienced 
foremen find it difficult to locate the frog for a 
new track so as to have straight track behind it. 
The place for the point of frog for a new track 
can be easily located by the following method: 

Rule. —Sight a line with stakes where you 
find the outside of the rail should come back of 
the frog on your intended track, and parallel to 
the main track, or the nearest track which runs 
in the same direction. Then with stakes carry 
the line perfectly straight until it crosses the first 
rail of the diagonal track. This is where the 
frog point should be placed for the new track. 

The above rule will always work well where 
the two tracks separate behind the frog at an 
angle corresponding to the angle of the frog, 
but should it be necessary to maintain two tracks, 
running from a switch, which diverge at an angle 
that will not suit the frogs you intended to use, 
you can ascertain by the method shown in the 
diagram Fig. 15, what kind of a frog will be 
needed. 




146 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


147 


HOW TO ASCESTAIN THE KIND OF FROG NEEDED. 

24. The lines in diagram represent the rails 
of two tracks. Measure across between the 
tracks rails at the points marked A and B, each 
of which is an equal distance from C, which 
marks where the rails cross or point of intersec¬ 
tion, then measure the distance, C B. Now divide 
the distance, C B, by the distance, A B, and the 
result will be the angle of the frog required. 
Suppose the distance, A B, is twelve inches, and 
the distance, C B, nine feet, it would require a 
one to nine frog, or as it is sometimes called a 
number nine frog. The distance, A B, may be 
measured where the rails or lines are only six or 
eight inches apart, but the result will always be 
the same in proportion to the distance from C to 
B. Where tracks are to run parallel with each 
other, it is best to gauge the distance they are to 
be apart by measuring from the nearest rail of a 
permanent track adjoining, if in good line, or 
from the center of the main track in yards. 

SPUR TRACKS. 

25. Spur tracks should be laid with a view to 
avoiding any extra switching. Always put in your 
switch on that end of the spur track which is in 
the direction in which the loaded cars are to be 
hauled. This matter does not always receive 




148 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


the attention it deserves. It is much easier to 
throw empty cars back upon a spur track than to 
head an engine in after the loads, and push them 
ahead to the nearest station to be switched there 
again. Much valuable time could be saved if 
all spur sidings could be dispensed with. Time 
is money in all the departments of a railroad, 
and to those track men who supervise the laying 
of any new tracks, especially in yards, I would 
say, lay all tracks with a view to the most effici¬ 
ent handling of cars. Help the train depart¬ 
ment all you can. Put a switch at both ends of 
a track whenever it can be done at a reasonable 
cost. 


TO STRAIGHTEN RAILS IN TRACK. 

26. To straighten a kinky rail or one bent lat¬ 
terly without taking it out of track is not a very 
difficult matter when a trackman understands 
how to do it. Double spike a tie at each end of 
the bend in the rail and at the same points have 
one of the men drive a lining bar firmly in the 
ground and hold it tight against the rail. Then 
with a chisel nick the flange of the rail, on the 
outside of the bent place to weaken it and you 
can then straighten the rail perfectly with a few 
good strong blows from a spike mall. Always 
strike the flange of the rail oftener than the top 
of it, as it is the most difficult part to bend, 
and to prevent cutting off your mall handle, if 






FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


149 


you strike and miss the flange, slip a piece of a 
board or plank in between the ties, and let it lay 
about half an inch below the base of the rail. 

This little trick of the trade will save track¬ 
men much annoyance where they are troubled by 
kinky rails and enable them to keep a good line 
and gauge on track. 

When bending the stock rail for split switches 
the work can be done easier, and better results 
obtained by cutting a nick in the flange of the 
rail, where you want to bend it, before using the 
sledge or rail bender. 


LAYING NEW STEEL. 

27. W r hen steel rails were a new thing, and 
cost several times as much money per ton as 
they now do, the railroads which purchased 
them were very careful where they laid them and 
how they were laid. The track had to be bal¬ 
lasted, smoothly surfaced, and filled up with 
good, sound ties, especially under the rail joints. 

None but the best of trackmen were employed 
to do the work, and special instructions were is¬ 
sued to the foremen how the rails should be 
handled and laid in the track; and the correct 
space between joints at the different tempera¬ 
tures was given, which could not be varied be¬ 
cause expansion shims were furnished to be 
placed between the rails when being laid. 



ISO 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


Special provision was made for unloading the 
rails from cars without bending or twisting them. 
No kinky rails were put in the track in that con¬ 
dition, and a record was kept of the wearing 
qualities of each separate lot of steel rails. It 
was considered next to a sacrilege to cut off the 
end of a steel rail to make a connection or put 
in a new switch lead, the iron rail always being 
cut in preference, or proper lengths of steel be¬ 
ing furnished for the switch lead. The results, in 
most cases, fully compensated for the pains taken 
when laying steel rails, and most of the railroad 
men who have had experience doing this work 
can testify that rails so well taken care of re¬ 
mained in service and lasted almost double as 
long a time as some of the steel rails laid nowa¬ 
days. 

This in part may be attributed to the inferior 
qualities of some of the steel rails produced at 
the present time, som3 of which will not wear as 
well as old craw shay iron. 

Steel rails have become so common now that 
all new railroads constructing or old roads relay¬ 
ing their track use nothing else, and on many of 
these roads (although there may be a pretense to the 
contrary) the steel is often thrown down on rough 
grades and run over without ballasting. In fact 
the policy of those in charge of the work seems 
to be, in some cases, not to take any better care 
of the new steel than they would of old worn 
out iron. Although steel has now become more 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 




common than iron, the regulations for laying it, 
such as those mentioned in the beginning of this 
article, should not be altered in any particular. 
June, July, and August are the best months for 
laying steel rails in the north and west, because 
during the summer months the conditions are 
more favorable for improving the track. The 
ground is dry and subgrade solid. Ties are all 
in the track, or on the ground ready to put in. 
Ballast supplies can be easily reached. There 
are better facilities for furnishing locomotives and 
cars to do the work, on account of lighter busi¬ 
ness on the roads. Last, but not least, the new 
rails may be laid at a time when there is the 
least variation in temperature and they are at or 
near their greatest expansion. 

HOW TO RE-LAY IRON OR STEEL. 

28. The method most generally practiced by 
track men, when re-laying iron or steel, is as fol¬ 
lows: First, the rails to be laid are ranged out 

along on the ends of the ties and bolted togeth¬ 
er, the end of the first rail being perfectly square 
with a joint in the track where the new and old 
rails meet. The first new rail should have two 
spikes driven at the end which goes into track 
first, to keep it from running ahead of the joint, 
which often happens in warm weather, or is 
caused by knocking the other rails endwise 
against it. If the end of the first rail does run 



152 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


past the joint before the foreman is aware of it, 
when laying the rails into track, he can generally 
shorten the line of rails enough to let the first 

rail in, by throwing a curve in at some distance 
from the first rail. The bolts should be kept 
tight in the new rails so that lining will not affect 
the spacing. The work of ranging out the new 
rails and getting ready to lay them into track 
should be done while trains are running so close 
together that there is not time to change a very 
large number at once. The time to put in new 
and take out old rails is when there is the long¬ 
est time between the passage of trains over 
track during the day. Another part of the work 
in getting ready is to remove from the rails in 
the track all the bolts and spikes that can be ta¬ 
ken out with safety. When everything is ready 
to lay in the new rails, a part of the men re¬ 
move all of the spikes remaining in the track on 
one side of each rail. The inside spikes are gen¬ 
erally the ones pulled out except when there is a 
difference in the width of the flange of the new 
and old rails, when it is necessary sometimes to 
pull the inside spikes on one side of the track 
and outside spikes on the other, or on both sides, 
in order to have the new iron or steel come to 
perfect gauge. While a part of the men are 
pulling spikes etc., another part should be throw¬ 
ing out of place the old line of rails and at the 
same time more of the men should be throwing 
in the new line of rails and spiking them into 





FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


153 ' 


place. Everything should be kept moving so 

that when the next train is nearly due there is 
nothing remaining to be done but making the 
connection between new and old rails where you 
intend to leave off, until the next line of new 
rails is ready to put in. A foreman should al¬ 
ways see that the first end of the new iron or 
steel is bolted immediately after throwing it into 
track, or it may cause considerable trouble by 
running ahead of the joint or by contracting, 
when it is sometimes very hard to get it back to 
place. When a foreman wants to make his tem¬ 
porary connections to let trains pass, a much bet¬ 
ter and quicker way than the old way of cutting 
a rail, every time a connection has to be made is 
to keep on hand, ready for use, two rails about 
ten feet long, cut tapering to a point on one end 
like those in split switches. When you want to 
make a connection you bolt the blunt end of 
these rails to the end of the last new rail put in, 
and lay the point end of short rail close up along 
the side of the next old rail, holding it to place 
with a shoe and spiking it to gauge. To put 
this short rail to gauge it is necessary only to 
pull or spring the spikes enough to let the end of 
the old track rail spread a little, and let the point 
rail to gauge. The use of these two short point 
rails saves considerable time in making a con¬ 
nection, as a foreman can work his men close up 
to the time that a train is due, putting in the new 
rails. 





154 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


AVERAGE LIFE OF IRON AND STEEL. 


29. Owing to the difference in quality and in 
the amount of traffic over iron or steel rails, it is 
very difficult to form a correct estimate of the 
average life of either. 

An important item to be considered when fig¬ 
uring the life of track rails is the care they re¬ 
ceived when first laid, and how they were kept 
up to surface by the section men aftewards. 
Rails, that are properly laid and are afterwards 
kept up to a good smooth surface, will wear and 
give good service from two to five years longer 
than rails of the same grade which ' have only 
been indifferently cared for. Every year that 
the life of a rail can be prolonged, it means a 
saving to the company of the interest for one 
year on the principal invested, and a proportion¬ 
ate part of the original cost, which is sometimes 
equal to the difference in value between old and 
new rails, and in many cases the amount thus 
saved would pay for the track labor for several 
years. 

Good iron rails have been known to last, in 
service on the main track of a railroad doing a 
fair business, eight and nine years, and steel 
rails fifteen years, but many brands wear out in 
less time. 

When their ends have become battered, rails 
are of little value in the main track of any road, 
where there is much business, and the joints 



FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


155 


cannot be kept up to a good surface, no matter 
what kind of ballast is put under them. The on¬ 
ly remedy is to saw off the bad ends of the rails 
and use them in branches or side tracks, and 
when the rail is battered on both the joint and 
center, it is only fit for rolling mill scrap. Track 
foremen should always remember that by keep¬ 
ing a smooth running surface on the rails, is the 
only way they can demonstrate their superiority 
as good trackmen. For such men there is always 
employment and good wages. One of the lar¬ 
gest items of a railroads expenses is caused 
through neglecting to keep a smooth surface on 
the track joints, either on account of incompe¬ 
tent foremen, or insufficient track forces. 

EVEN OR BROKEN JOINTS. 

30. There has been considerable discussion 
by trackmen on the subject of broken or even 
joints. The majority of track has heretofore 
been laid with even joints, but there lately have 
been many opinions expressed in favor of laying 
the rails with what are called broken joints, 
which consists in placing the rail joint on one 
side of the track opposite to the center of the 
rail on the other side of the track. There are a 
few points in favor of the latter method which I 
think are of sufficient importance to be worthy 
of consideration. 

On a curve track where the rails were not bent 



156 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


before being laid, the broken joint will assist to 
keep the track in line, because the center of the 
rail will retain the curve better than the joint; 

but if the rails are bent to the proper shape be¬ 
fore being laid, the true curve line can be pre¬ 
served as well without broken joints. Laying the 
rails with broken joints and long angle bars 
slotted and spiked on three ties will give a great¬ 
er power to prevent track from creeping than 
with even joints, because the holding power of 
the three ties has but one side of the track to 
keep in place instead of both, as would be the 
case with even joints. It is also claimed that 
when the rails are laid with broken joints a bet¬ 
ter surface can be preserved at the joint, the 
smooth rail center on the opposite side prevent¬ 
ing the car wheels from striking the ends of the 
rail so hard when passing over it, and this seems 
to be the chief reason for laying the rails that 
way. 

On the other hand it is handier to lay track 
with even joints and to repair and surface it. 
Even joints on a rough track will remain, more 
level, and tram* will ride tmooihtr over them 
than would be the case over a track laid with 
broken joints under the same conditions. But a 
rough track on any railroad ought soon to be a 
thing of the past. It might be preferrable to lay 
the rails broken joints where the track is well 
ballasted and a sufficient force of men are em¬ 
ployed to keep it in good repair, for the reason 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


157 


that if the track has a good surface on the rails 
the load over a pair of wheels cannot strike the 
broken joint with as much force as it would on 
even joints. It would therefore require less lab¬ 
or to preserve the surface and keep the track in 
good condition. 

HEAVIER RAILS WANTED. 

31. The time is coming, I think, when all 
railroads will use a much heavier rail than the 
average weight now in use, because the increas¬ 
ing demand for freight cars with greater carry¬ 
ing capacity, and the increased weight of all the 
locomotives which have been built of late, will 
force the railroads to improve the track they are 
to run over, and in no other place can improve¬ 
ment be"made to better advantage than in the 
rails and joint fastenings. 

Heretofore the policy of many of the railroads 
has been to lay in the track the lightest weight 
of rail that it was possible to run over safely, in 
order to lessen the cost of construction, without 
a thought as to the probable cost of keeping up 
such a rail to surface, after the business of the road 
increased the traffic over it, and as the weight of 
their rolling stock gradually increased, the de¬ 
fects of said light rails soon became apparent, 
and different devices were resorted to in order to 
strengthen these rails. Very heavy splices were 
adopted to prevent the ends of rails from bending 



i 5 8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


or becoming too low for the rest of the track. 
The number of ties under a rail was increased, 
hard steel was substituted for iron, and addition¬ 
al track labor was employed to make a first- class 
track with this light rail. But I think I am safe 
in saying that the result has not given satisfac¬ 
tion in proportion to the extra outlay, and that 
if this money had been expended in purchasing 
heavy steel rails, it would have been the more 
profitable policy in the end. 

My ideal of a track Pail to fill the present want 
on first class roads would be a steel rail not too 
hard, four and one-half inches in height, with a 
flange base five inches wide, a web not less than 
three quarters of an inch thick, the ball of a suf¬ 
ficient depth and not less than two and one-half 
inches traction surface on top. This will aid 
the pulling capacity of the locomotive and 
lengthen the life of both the locomotive and car 
wheels. 

The gauge side of the rail should be slightly 
lower than the outside so as to give the whole 
surface of the top for the wheel base to rest 
on, and thus increase the wheel mileage and pre¬ 
vent for a much longer period the wearing of a 
groove in the wheel thread which is the result 
generally brought about by heavy wheel loads 
and narrow headed light rails. A wide rail head, 
which fits the shape of the wheel thread, will 
prevent so many wheels being sent to the scrap 
heap, and weaken the power of the lateral 



FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


159 


thrusts which swings the cars so heavily at high 
rates of speed. 

A wide rail base will prevent the rail from cut¬ 
ting iuto soft ties, under heavy traffic, and is 
a much more economical and labor saving meth¬ 
od of disposing of the money which many roads 
are now investing in tie plates, the best results 
from which are only obtained on sharp curves, 
where the tie plate acts as a brace for the outer 
rail by holding the strain on two spikes instead 
of one. 

The bolt holes in the ends of the rails should 
be of an oblong form, and the expansion and 
contraction should be controlled by the ties 
spiked through slots in the angle bars instead of 
in the rail flange. A rail such as recommended, 
would weigh between 80 and 90 pounds per yard 
and would materially increase the cost over the ma¬ 
jority of the sections now in use. But I look on 
this side of the question, as only a secondary 
consideration, with a first class railroad. Some 
track men may differ with me as to the thickness • 
of the web of the rail, which I recommend. 
But I believe this part of the rail should be made 
much stronger than it is now, and should not be 
sacrificed to better other parts of the rail, or to 
accommodate the shape of the splices. Every 
track rail should be like a steel bridge, capable 
of supporting the heaviest rolling stock without 
showing the slightest depression in the surface, 
even should the supports be taken away from 



i6o 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


under three feet of the length at any point. 

Railroads now want a rail which will not yield 
to the weight of their heavy locomotives and 
press down into every rotten tie, nor bend over 
at the joints. 

By increasing the size and strength of the 
track rail, we may lessen the amount of labor 
necessary to keep up the joints and preserve a 
good surface on the track. The useful life of 
the ties is increased, while their number can be 
reduced in good ballast, and besides a very con¬ 
siderable economy is effected in the wear and 

j 

tear on wheels and rolling stock, three elements 
which go far towards compensating for the extra 
cost of the rails. Figures 16 and 17 are half 
size sections of a rail which would weigh about 
90 pounds per yard. 

EFFECT OF HEAVY LOCOMOTIVES AND CARS ON 

TRACK. 


32. It seems to me that railroad officers and 
manufacturers of railroad equipments, sometimes 
make grave mistakes when seeking to improve 
some one department of the service. They over¬ 
look the necessities of some other department, 
or ignore it altogether. For instance, a heavy 
locomotive was constructed for an eastern rail¬ 
road, and a paper giving a. description of it 
stated that the greatest part of its entire weight 
would rest on one pair of drive wheels. 



THE WEIR FROG flfl CO., CINCINNATI, O. 


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THE WEIR FROG CO.’S COMBINATION CROSSING OR SLIP SWITCH, with outside throwing device. 





















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































INSTRUCTIONS FOR PUTTING IN 


THE WEIR FROG CO.’S 

COMBINATION CROSSING OR SLIP SWITCH 

WITH OUTSIDE THROWING DEVICE. 

Place the frogs in the track, and connect with filling 
rails as numbered on the head of each rail at every 
joint, and line up as usual with frog crossiri'gs. The 
switch-points should then be placed in position, follow¬ 
ing numbers on head of rail, with the curved switch- 
rails in the middle of the crossing; having first placed 
the friction plates in position according to their number, 
put in the switch bars, and then the curved outside 
stock rail, spiking same to gauge with the switch-points. 
After being sure that the crossing is to gauge through 
the turn-out tracks and the crossing tracks, attach the 
short connecting rods and the connecting rods with 
turn-buckles to head rods of switches at each end, in 
the position shown by cut. Then place the “T” cranks 
in position at each end, join the connecting rods to 
“T” cranks, and set the arms of the “T” cranks par¬ 
allel to the center line of crossing, which will make all 
switch-points open an equal distance, then spike crank- 
castings to timbers. Throw outside points over against 
outside curved rails in the position shown, then attach 
the long rods with bearing castings to “T”'crank at 
each end, and to stand in the center. If the points 
thrown by long connecting rod have not the proper 
throw, they are adjusted by the turn-buckle in this long 
connecting rod, and the points thrown by shorter con¬ 
necting rods are adjusted to proper throw by turn-buckle 
in the long rod on the outside of crossing. 

As Manufactured by 

THE WEIR FROG CO., Cincinnati, O. 































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































INSTRUCTIONS FOR PUTTING IN 

f THE WEIR FROG CO. S 

COMBINATION CROSSING OR SLIP SWITCH 

WITH MOVABLE FROG-POINTS, OPERATED BY SINGLE 
STAND AND DUPLEX T-Ft ROWING DEVICE IN CENTER. 

Place frogs in position in track, and connect filling 
rails and movable frog-points as numbered on heads of 
rails at each joint, then place bent and also the curved 
rails in position,-and connect switch-points, again fol¬ 
lowing numbers on heads of rails -at each joint.- The 
friction-plate^ should then be placed in their proper 
places, No. r being the first plate at extreme point of 
switch rails, and No. io, the last plate, will be on "head- 
block just beyond bend in rail at center of- the crossing. 
The bars for the movable frog-points and the switches 
may -then be put in place, and the Avhole crossing, put 
in line and spiked to gauge. Next put middle section 
of throwing device in place between the movable points 
at center of crossing, connecting' rods to be put under 
the bent rail on the side that switch-stand is to be set, 
and the guide-casting that is on the connecting rods must 
then be bolted into position on bent rail where holes are 
provided lor that purpose. Then spike bearing castings 
on throwing device to ties, keeping it in the center of 
track; after which connect the switch-stand, using the 
two lower sliding bars in stand, connecting same with 
two of the four connecting rods furnished, then - spike 
stalid to ties and remove the temporary bolts from the 
center of the middle section y. after which throw the 
tne stand over several times to see tha.t it works freely, 
and leave in opposite position to what it was before 
being thrown. Next place the end sections of throw¬ 
ing device in position, following center punch marks 
on rods in connecting, and screw up bolts in rods 
and in lugs at extreme ends to switch-points. When 
this is done the outside curved rails should be spiked to 
gauge, and the switches, when thrown as cuts show, 
should close up to them. After this is done see that 
stand is thrown into position as shown on cut, and place 

the remaining two connecting rod's in position as 
shown. 

Manufactured only by 

THE WEIR FROG CO., Cincinnati, O. 


THE WEIR FROG UU CO., CINCINNATI, O. 



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INSTRUCTIONS FOR PUTTING IN 

THE WEIR FROG CO.’S 

COMBINATION CROSSING OR SLIP-SWITCH 

WITH DUPLEX THROWING DEVICE. 

The first thing necessary is to have ties set at proper 
distances, especially where the friction-plates for the 
switch-points are to be placed. Then follow numbers 
on heads of rails at all joints in placing crossing in track; 
after which spike to proper gauge and line, taking care to 
place friction-plates, which are numbered (No. i goes 
neare^f the point of switch) in proper places on ties. 
Next place switch-points in position, again following 
numbers on heads of rails at joints, and put switch- 
bars, which are also numbered, in their proper places in 
switches. Next, put middle section of throwing device 
in place between the center frogs of crossing, connecting 
rods to be put under the center frog on the side that 
switch-stand is to be set, and guide-casting that is on the 
connecting rods must then be bolted into position on 
center frog, where holes are provided for that purpose. 
It is then necessary to spike the bearing castings on 
throwing device to ties, keeping it in the center of the 
track; after which connect to switch-stand, using one of 
the two separate connecting rods on each sliding bar 
of the stand, then spike stand to ties, and remove the 
temporary bolts from the center of the middle section; 
after which throw the stand over several times to see 
that it works freely, and leave in opposite position to 
what it was before being thrown. Next, place the sec¬ 
tions of throwing device in position, follow center punch 
marks on rods in connecting, and screw up bolts in rods 
and in lugs at extreme ends to switch-points. When this 
is done, the outside curved rails should be spiked to 
gauge, and the switches, when thrown as cuts show, 
should close up to them. 

Manufactured only by 

THE M^EIR FROG CO., Cincinnati, O. 


TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


We show on the following page, cut of an Automatic 
Spring Switch Stand, different in construction from the 
Ramapo, and other types of Automatic Stands. The most 
noticable feature in this Automatic Stand is the three part 
clutch,with differential incline faces. The weak part of Auto¬ 
matic Spring Stands is that they are apt to leave the point 
rail partially open after a train has, trailed through the 
switch. This is due to the fact that the spring is not pow¬ 
erful enough to force the clutch faces together, and by this 
means force the switch rail up tight against the stock rail. 
What is desired then, is a Stand which will offer compara¬ 
tively slight resistance to the wheel flange when it forces 
the point rail open, and that will close the opposite point 
tight against the stock rail without depending on the wheels 
to do so, because the clearance between the guage of the 
track, and the guage of the wheels, is so great as to leave 
the point open far enough to be dangerous to trains running 
facing the point rails. Then again, the first wheel which 
trails through should throw the points over, and the Stand 
hold them there, the same as if the switch was thrown by 
hand, and the target of stand should always show for 
which track the switch is set, whether thrown by trailing 
train 01 by hand. This stand meets all the requirements 
above enumerated, and whether padlocked or not a trailing 
train will throw the switch points, and show the proper tar¬ 
get for track. A low yard stand on the same plan, is also 
made by this firm. 

This stand may be used either on one or two ties as pre¬ 
ferred, and can be fitted with long target shaft and ladder, 
so that targets'can be seen above the tops of freight cars or 
around curves. 







THE WEIR FROG CO., CINCINNATI, 0. 





























































































































































































































































































































































































































FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


We show on preceedmg page, illustration of a simple and 
effective arrangement of the Three Throw Split Switch. 1 o 
make this device satisfactory, it should be as near the single 
split switch in all its parts as it is possible to be, and the 
arrangement of the different parts as here shown, comes 
nearer to this than any we have seen. It will be noticed 
that the points hug the stock rail and the point rails as 
snugly as those of the single split switch do, and the tie or 
bridal bars are placed so that they are below the edge of 
the ties, for in case of broken brake beams, or other disar¬ 
ranged parts of cars that there may be, are more apt to 
strike the ties and be carried over the bars without tearing 
them out, or disarranging them. In the connecting of these 
bars there is no crossing over or under, each bar is parallel 
to the other, and the fastenings or lugs being made of Steele 
and die formed, the whole bar and fastening has all the 
solidity, without the danger of a poor weld that a forged bar 
has. By the use of turn-buckles in the connecting rods, the 
points can always be kept adjusted, and to proper throw. 
This device is operated by a low three throw ground stand 
(and is the only device of this kind so operated) a most de¬ 
sirable feature for three throw split switches, when it is 
taken into consideration that these devices are used only in 
yards, where it is most generally the case, a want of room 
exists, and where a high stand frequently cannot well be 
used owing to the crowded condition of tracks; besides the 
use of a low stand in connection with three throw switches, 
gives the switchmen clearer room to switch the cars. The 
target on this stand can be arranged to throw for both turn¬ 
outs on the same side of the main line. These Switches are 
in use in some of the most busy yards in the country, and 
meet with the praise of switchmen who have occasion to use 
them, as the simplest and best of its kind. 




FROGS AND SWITCHES 


161 



[Fig. I 6.1-Half Size. [Fig. I 7.1-Half Size. 

Head, 30.(5. Web, 15.0. Jiead, 33.5. Web, 19.4. 

Flang#, 37.8 Weight per Yard, 90 lbs. Flange, 37.1. Weight per Yard, 90 lbs. 


























162 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


The object sought was to increase the tractive 
power, a very good feature in a locomotive. 

But it was not stated over what kind of rails 

this locomotive would run. Now it is likely that 
the locomotive mentioned will, when put in ser¬ 
vice, wear out double as many rails in a given 
time, as one where the same amount of weight 
is distributed over two pair of drive wheels. 

Nearly every railroad man who has examined 
the track where a heavy locomotive has been 
working for some time will say that he has 
noticed that the top surface of the rails scales off 
and flattens, and spreads in some cases. This is 
all the result of the great weight, which is con¬ 
centrated over the engine's drive wheels, no oth¬ 
er part of th6 train having the same effect on 
track. 

The drive wheels of a locomotive act like a 
roller on the rails, and with weight enough rest¬ 
ing on them, it should not be a hard matter to 
flatten out the rail into a thin sheet of iron or 
steel. 

I think it would be a good policy for railroads 
to select for their tracks a rail of the proper 
shape, weight and hardness, and then adopt a 
maximum weight over each pair of wheels in 
their rolling stock, beyond which no manufact¬ 
urer should be allowed to go, when building cars 
or locomotives, instead of the practice now in 
force of running anything from 5 to 75 tons 
weight from New York to San Francisco, over 




FROGS AND SWITCHES. 


163 

rails made of iron or steel, of all varieties of 
shapes and weights. 

Increasing the capacity of cars and the weight 
of locomotives, it seems to me should not be 
carried too far until the weight can be more ev¬ 
enly distributed over the track, or until all the 
railroads which interchange traffic have prepared 
their track and bridges to receive such cars and 
locomotives. 

Some one perhaps will say, put more wheels 
under the rolling stock, but here again the limit 
is nearly reached, especially in locomotives, for 
unfortunately most all of the railroads have 
curves in their track which will not admit of very 
extended improvement in that direction. 

There can be no question that, when a pair of 
wheels is extra heavily loaded, they have a bad 
effect on track, whether on a car or locomotive. 
Because they strike the rail joints and other weak 
places in track with greater force than any other 
part of the train, wearing and damagingthe track 
proportionately, and often when the wheel base 
is made longer to more evenly distribute the load 
over each pair of wheels, the track is injured 
and its safety is impaired, through the inability of 
the locomotive or cars to pass arcund sharp 
curves without crowding the rails and wearing 
them along the gauge lines. Now a days a car 
or locomotive, should be constructed with the 
view of travelling over any railroad track in the 
United States where traffic is interchangeable. 















' 









































CURVED TRACKS. 


165 



RVED TRACKS. 


CHAPTER V. 

I, Radius and Degree of Curves, Fig. 18—2, Curve Ra¬ 
dius—3, Method of Staking or Laying out a Side Track 
without the Aid of Transit or Chain, Fig. 19—4, To Lay 
Out a Four Degree Curve-5, To Lay Out a Curve by 
the Eye, Fig. 20—6, Radii, Ordinates, Tangent and Chord 
Deflections, Table ill—7, To Find the Radius of a Curve 
Required to Reach any Desired Object, the Point of 
Curve being known, Fig. 21—8, Method of Laying a Spur 
Track Curve, Fig. 22—o, Three Methods of Finding the 
Difference in Length Between the Inner and Outer Rails 
of a Curve—10, Broken or Staggered Joints, Tables 
iv and v. 

II, Elevation of Curves— 12, Elevate for the Greatest 
Speed—13, Sharp Curves and Elevation—14, When Speed 
of Trains Does not Exceed 15 Miles per Hour—iq, The 
Curve on Passing Tracks, etc.—16, Table of Ordinates, 
Fig. 23—17, How to Apply it—18, Compound Curves—19, 
Frequent Changes—20, Curve Track Gauges—21, Laying 
the Rails on Curves—22, To Curve a Rail Properly— 
23, The Curve Approach—24, Printed Information for 
Foremen—25, Guard Rails on Curves—26, Between 
Reverse Curves—27, Putting the Elevation in Curves. 

28, Rules For Lining Curves, Fig. 24—29, Effect of Lo¬ 
comotives and Car Wheels on Track—30, Elevation Bal¬ 
ance—31, Liability of Derailment—32, Reduced Speed—- 
33, A Curve in a Sag—34, Care of Curves—35, Lining 
Curves—36, Straight Rails in Curves—37, Number of 
Rails Wanted on Curves—38, Foremen Should Know the 
Degree—39, A Good Curve—40, Dangerous Car Wheels 
on Curves. 
















165 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


RADIUS AND DEGREE OF CURVES. 


i. Figure 18 illustrates a very simple method 
by which to determine the radius or degree and 
point of curve. When the curve holds 90 de¬ 
grees of angle, the radius is the same length as 
the tangents of the curve. As shown in the ex¬ 
ample, the letters, G and F, represent the rails 
of a piece of straight track from which it is de¬ 
sired to turn out a curve track, which, when dis¬ 
tant from said track 573 feet and at right angles 
with it. will parallel a building, marked E, also 
with straight track. 

Measure the distance in a straight line from A 
to B which is 573 feet, the radius of the curve. 
This radius being one-tenth of 5 - 73 ° feet, the 
radius of a one degree curve, a ten degree' curve 
is required. Now turn off at right angles at B 
and measure a distance equal to the radius 573 
feet, and this locates the point of curve at C. 
The letter, D, marks the center of a circle. It is 
at a point equidistmt from A and C. A cord, 
equal in length to the radius, if attached to a 
stake at D, will reach both points at A and C, 
and if swung around between these points it will 
form a correct curve. 

It is not advisable to use a radius when laying 
out a curve which is much less than the example 
except when putting in a “Y ” track or to save 
costly filling and when track room is scarce. 



CURVED TRACKS. 


167 



Fg. 1C. 














THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


After finding the radius point and degree of a 
curve by the preceding method, a foreman can 
lay out the curve by the method given in para¬ 
graph 5, or he can use a cord sixty-two feet long 
and lay out the curve by the method given in the 
rule for lining curves by beginning at the point 
of curve and deflecting one inch at the middle of 
the cord for each degree of curvature. 

CURVE RADIUS. 

2. A radius is half the diameter of a circle, or 
a line one end of which will reach any part of the 
circumference, if the other end of it is secured at 
the center of the circle. 


TABLE OF RADIUS. 


DEGREE OF 
CURVE. 

LENGTH OF 
RADIUS. 


DEGREE OF 
CURVE. 

l.ENGTH OF 
RADIUS. 

1 . 

5.730 leet . 


11. 

621 feet . 

2 . 

2.805 •• . 


12. 

4771/9 ” . 

3 . 

1 9'0 “ . 


13. 

4403a “ . 

4 . 

!. 321/2 « . 


14. 

40914 “ . 

5 . 

1.140 “ . 


15. 

382 “ . 

6 . 

955 “ . 


16. 

d 581/^ *' 

7 . 

8181 ,0 “ . 


17. 

337 ~ “ 

8 . 

71614 “ . 


18. 

3 I 8 I /3 “ 

9 . 

63«% *• . 

'19. 

3011/2 “ 

10 . 

573 “ . 

|20 . 

1861/2 “ . 


METHOD OF STAKING OR LAYING OUT A SIDE TRACK 
WITHOUT THE AID OF TRANSIT OR CHAIN. 

3. It is often the case that a side track, to 
some warehouse or other building close to a rail¬ 
road, is wanted to be put in on short notice. In 


























































CURVED TRACKS. 


1 6^ 


such cases the companies engineers cannot al¬ 
ways be on hand to lay out the work. Then the 
roadmaster or one of his assistants, must get the 

track laid as best they can. There are many 
side tracks laid which have the grade and other 
conditions so favorable that any intelligent track 
foreman can do the necessary work without any 
teaching, but it is not always plain sailing and 
the following simple rules and examples will be 
found serviceable as a guide to work by. Where 
there is plenty of track room and the intended 
side track is to run straight in a diagonal direc¬ 
tion from the track which it is thrown off from. 
First locate a point where the outside rail of the 
new track will come where it passes the building, 
then measure the distance in feet from this point 
to a point on the nearest rail on the old track 
squarely opposite. Multiply this distance by the 
number of the frog you are about to use and the 
product will be the distance in feet that the point 
of frog must be set ahead of either of the first 
points where measurements were made in order 
to have a straight side track from the heel of the 
frog to where it passes the building. 

Example: —A and B, Fig. 19, are the ends of a 
line running across from a permanent track to a 
point where outside rail of the new track will 
pass a building. The length of this line one 
hundred feet, the number of the frog we will 
suppose to be one to seven; 7x100equals 700, the 
distance from A to C. The point of frog should 





170 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 



6 

M- 

C 














CURVED TRACKS. 


171 


come at C for your switch. After passing the 
building the new track may be run into the per- 
manent track at whatever point is most conven¬ 
ient, such as is shown at D, unless it is desired 
to maintain a spur track, when it will not be 
necessary to pass the building any more than 
enough to have the required track room for cars. 

As will be seen in the preceding example, the 
ends of a track running from B to D, would re¬ 
quire a curve in its construction in order to com¬ 
plete the new track so that it could be used from 
either end, C or D. 

TO LAY OUT A FOUR DEGREE CURVE. 

4. The method of procedure when laying out 
curve track is more difficult than a straight track 
but simple enough when once understood. A 
knowledge of the deflection distances ol curves 
is essential and is given in table 1 1 1. Let E B 
represent the center line of a straight track run¬ 
ning parallel with the building shown in figure 
19, set a stake at E, and one at B, then set a 
third stake at F, one hundred feet ahead of B, 
making E, B and F all in a straight line. The 
tangent deflection distance for a 4 degree curve 
is 3\ feet or the distance as shown from F to G, 
set a sts ke at G, square with the stake at F. G 
is then the first center stake in a four degree 
curve, now measure one hundred feet from G 
and set another stake at II in a line with B and 



172 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


G. again measure in the chord deflection dis¬ 
tance, 7 feet, to } which is the next center stake 
of the curve, measure another one hundred feet 
to K in a straight line with ] and G, and the 
chord deflection distance to L which is the third 
centre stake of the curve. We have now covered 
one half the distance between B and M. To 
continue the track from L to M, it is necessary to 
reverse the curve, to do which we lay cff a curve 
from M to N in the same manner as explained 
in paragraphs 5 and 8. 

TO LAY OUT A CURVE BY THE EYE. 

5. In Fig. 20, the chord, H C, subtends the 
angle formed by the tangent, A B, produced to H, 
with the chord, B C, is called the tangent- deflec¬ 
tion. The chord, I D, which subtends the angle 
formed by the chord, B C, produced to I, with 
the chord, C D, is called the chord deflection. 
The number of degrees in the angle, I G D, ex¬ 
presses the degree of curve. The tangent deflec¬ 
tion is equal to one-half the chord deflection. 

Table 111, has the radius, tangent deflection, 
chord deflection and middle ordinates, calculated 
for chords of 100 ft., for differences of 10 min¬ 
utes. For a curve containing odd minutes, the 
parts can be readily calculated by simple propor¬ 
tion. Having these respective distances, any in¬ 
telligent foreman can trace a curve on the 
ground, with tolerable accuracy, especially where 



CURVED TRACKS. 


173 



Fig. 20. 







*74 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


the ground is favorable. Suppose it be required 
to lay out in this manner, a four degree curve. 

First find from table i i i, the tangent deflec¬ 
tion, H C, corresponding to a four degree curve, 
viz. 3 ft. 5 1 in’s, and also the chord deflection, 

I D, or K E, 6 ft. ii| in’s. Then from the 
starting point B, and in line with A B, measure 
B H, equal to ioo ft., and mark the point H. 
Swing the tape around toward B C, keeping the 
end at B fixed, at the same time measure from 
the point H, the tangent deflection 3 ft. 5| in’s., 
and place a stake at C, for the first point on the 
curve. Then make C I, equal 100 ft., putting in 
a peg at I, in line with those at B and C. Swing 
the tape or cord around until I D is equal to the 
chord deflection, 6ft. 1 1J in’s. Place a stake at 
D for the second point on the curve. 

In the same manner continue the chord deflec¬ 
tions until the end of the curve is reached at E. 

In order to pass from the curve at E, into the 
next tangent, E G, make E L equal to 100 ft., 
and put in a peg at L in line with those at D 
and E. Swing the tape around until F L is 
equal to the tangent deflection. Then will a line, 
passing through E and F, be tangent to the 
curve at E. 

If the last chord, D E, is less than 100 ft., its 
tangent deflection can be calculated by multiply¬ 
ing the square of the sub-chord by the tangent 
deflection of a 100 ft. chord, and dividing by 
looo. Then throw off a tangent to the curve at 




CURVED TRACKS. 


U5 


D, lay off from it the calculated tangent deflec¬ 
tion for the sub-chord, making D E of the given 
length. Lay the curve out and let the stakes 
form the center line of track. 

RADII,, ORDINATES, TANGENT AND CHORD DEFLEC¬ 
TIONS. 

6. Curves are spoken of as being of a certain 
degree or radius. The radii of curves are pro¬ 
portional to the degree of curvature. The radii 
corresponding to any degree may be found ap¬ 
proximately , by dividing 5730 (the radius of a 
1 degree curve) by the degree of curve. 

Radius of a 5 degree curve — 5730 5 = 

1146. 

This rule is very close for radii of not less than 
500 ft. 

The middle ordinate of a chord is the perpen¬ 
dicular distance from the middle of the chord to 
the curve; thus M N, Fig. 20, is the middle ordi¬ 
nate of the chord, C D. 

The middle ordinate may be found, approxi¬ 
mately , by dividing the square of the chord by 
eight times the radius. The error for a 50 ft. 
chord on a 20 degree curve is only 1-32 of an 
inch. 

The chord deflection of a 100 ft. chord may 
be ascertained (exactly) by dividing 10,000 by 
the radius in feet. The tangent deflection is one- 
half the chord deflection. 



176 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


TABLE III.—Radii. Also Ordinates and Deflections for 

100 Feet Chords. 


O 

QJ 

t- 

U 

0> 

ft 

Radius. 

Middle 

Ordinate. 

Sc 
£* ® 

Chord 

Deflection. 


1 

Degrees. 

n. m. 

FT. 

FT. IN. 

FT. IN. 

FT. IN. 


D. M. 

0 10 

34377 

0 oft 

0 134 

0 31/2 


7 

20 

17189 

0 07/ 8 

0 31/9 

0 7 


10 

30 

11459 

0 1ft 

0 514 

0 104 


20 

40 

8594 

0 1:1/4 

0 7 

1 2 


30 

50 

6*75 

0 2ft 

0 834 

1 5ft 


40 

1 

5730 

0 25/g 

0 101/2 

1 m 

50 

10 

4911 

0 3ft 

1 Oft 

2 0ft 


8 

20 

4297 

0 35/o 

1 2 

2 3ft 


10 

30 

3820 

0 3 ft 

1 3 n 

2 7ft 


20 

40 

3438 

0 43/8 

1 5ft 

2 1078 


30 

50 

3125 

0 4ft 

1 7 ft 

3 238 1 

40 

2 

2865 

0 514 

1 8ft 

3 5/ 8 

50 

10 

2645 

0 5ft 

1 10ft 

3 9-cs 

9 

20 

2456 

0 61/8 

2 Oft 

4 O/fil 

10 

30 

2292 

') 6ft 

2 2ft 

4 438 

20 

40 

2149 

) 7 

2 3ft 

4 7 % 

30 

50 

2022 

<> 7ft 

2 5ii 

4 lift 

40 

3 

1910 

1 778 

2 7ft 

5 2ft 

50 

10 

1810 

0 8ft 

2 9ft 

5 6ft ' 

10 

20 

1719 

0 834 

2 10% 

5 9ft 


30 

30 

1637 

" 9ft 

3 Oft 

6 1ft 


11 

40 

1563 

0 95/ 8 

3 2% 

6 434' 

30 

50 

1495 

0 10 ft 

3 4 % 

6 81,4 


12 

4 

1433 

') 101/9 

3 578 

6 1134 


30 

10 

1375 

0 1078 

3 7% 

7 314 


13 

20 

1322, 

0 lift 

3 938 

7 634 


30 

30 

1274 

0 1113 

3 11% 

7 IOI4 


11 

40 

1228 

1 Oft 

4 078 

8 134 


30 

50 

1186 

1 Oft 

4 238 

8 5 ft 


15 

5 

1146 

1 m 

4 43/8 

8 8ft 


30 

10 

1109 

1 11/2 

4 6ft 

9 Oft 


16 

20 

1075 

1 2 

4 7ft 

9 3ft 


30 

30 

1042j 

1 2% 

4 9fg 

9 71/8 


17 

40 

1012 

l 278 

4 lift 

9 105/g 


18 

50 

983 

l 31/4 

5 1 ft 

10 2ft 


19 

6 

955 

1 3 ft 

5 2ft 

10 55/g 


20 

10 

930 

1 41/8 

5 4ft 

10 91/8 ! 

21 

20 

9051 4ft 

5 6ft 

11 Oft 


22 

30 

882 1 5 

5 8 

11 4 


23 

40 

860 1 5ft 

5 '934 

11 71/2 


24 

50 

839 1 5% 

5 IH/2 

11 11 


25 





-4-3 



£ 

Radius. 

is 

0 

c 

Chord 

s 

0 

<v 

G 

0 

Q 

FT. 

FT.IN. 

FT. 

IN. 

FT. 

IN. 

819 

1 

6ft 

6 

11/4 

12 

21/2 

800 

1 

6^4 

6 

3 

12 

6 

782 

1 

7 3 

6 

434 

12 

91,4 

765 

1 

75/8 

6 

61/2 

13 

1 

748 

1 

8ft 

6 

81/4 

13 

4/g 

732 

1 

81/2 

6 

10 

13 

8 

717 

1 

8ft 

6 

Il:i 4 

13 

lift 

702 

1 

9% 

7 

1 7 

1 16 

14 

2% 

62 

688 

1 

9ft 

7 

3ft 

14 

675 

1 

101/4 

7 

4ft 

14 

9ft 

662 

1 

10ft 

7 

6ft 

15 

12 

649 

1 

1118 

7 

8ft 

15 

412 

637 

1 

11 

11 16 

7 

101/8 

15 

8 ft 

626 

2 

0 

n 

i 

117 8 

15 

lift 

615 

2 

Oft 

8 

15/8 

16 

314 

601 

2 

0/8 

8 

33 8 

16 

6? 

593 

2 

1ft 

8 

51/8 

16 

10ft 

583 

2 

m 

8 

6 '8 

17 

1ft 

574 

2 

2 ft 

8 

858 

17 

5 ft 

546 

2 

31/2 

9 

1 1 ? 
1 1 6 

18 

35 g 

522 

2 

4 ft 

9 

7 

19 

2 

499 

2 

618 

10 

O14 

20 

014 

478 

2 

7ft 

10 

5ft 

20 

1078 

459 

2 

834 

10 

105/8 

21 

9 j 

442 

2 

10 ft 

11 

3/8 

22 

7 ft 

425 

2 

11% 

11 

9 ft 

23 

61/8 

410 

3 

Oft 

12 

2ft 

24 

412 

369 

3 

2 

12 

7 ft 

25 

22 

383 

3 

3 ft 

13 

0s 

26 

11 

371 

3 

3 

458 

13 

5? 3 

26 

112 

359 

5ft 

13 

11 

27 

10 

348 

3 

714 

14 

4ft 

28 

82 

338 

3 

858 

14 

93g 

29 

6? 

320 

3 

lift 

15 

734 

31 

3ft 

303 

4 

178 

16 

6 ft 

33 

014 

288 

4 

41/2 

17 

43 8 

34 

82 

274 

4 

7 ft 

18 

2ft 

30 

52 

262 

4 

934 

19 

1 

38 

2 

251 

5 

0ft 

19 

lift 

39 

101/2 

240 

5 

3ft 

20 

91/2 

41 

7 

231 

5 

53/4 21 

73/443 

31/2 



































CURVED TRACKS. 


TO FIND THE RADIUS OF A CURVE REQUIRED TO 
REACH ANY DESIRED OBJECT THE POINT 
OF CURVE BEING KNOWN. 

7. 1 ° Fig- 21, A B. represents a tangent, and 

starting at a point as A, it is required to reach 
the point C. From the starting point A, meas¬ 
ure along the tangent to a point B, square across 
from C, then measure the perpendicular distance, 
B C. Then divide the square of the distance, A 
B, by twice B C, and to the quotient add \ B C, 
the result will be the required radius. The line 
of the perpendicular can be obtained by placing 
the gauge on the track, and sighting along it; or 
if A B is only a line of stakes, as the line of the 
frog produced, layoff on the ground the sides of a 
right angled triangle, 15, 20 and 25 feet are con¬ 
venient lengths, always making 15 or 20, coincide 
with the given tangent. If the main line is 
curved, the measurements may be taken on the 
prolongation of the tangent through the starting 
point. 



Fig. 21. 








i ;8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


Example: —Given A B =400 and B C, =162,4, to find 
radius. Radius = 4C0X400-L2X 162.4+ 162.4-^2 = 462.6+ 
812 = 573.8, the radius of a 10 deg. curve. 

If B C and the radius of the curve are given, 
A B is calculated as follows: From twice the 
radius subtract B C multiply this difference by 

B C, and extract the square root. 

Example: —B C = 162.4 and the radius 573.8. A B = 
573.8x2=1147.6, 1147.6—162.4X162.4=15996.48, the square 
root of which is 400—. 


METHOD OF LAYING A SPUR TRACK CURVE. 

8. In Fig. 22, it is required to lay a perma¬ 
nent track to a warehouse at K, from main line, 
A D. 

Range a tanget, E I, at the proper distance 
from, and pararallel to the warehouse. Then at 
a convenient point, as C, on the center line of 
main track, lay off the angle, D C E, equal to the 
angle of the frog used. A simple way of doing 
this is to measure a convenient distance, C D, 
say 100 ft., along center line of main track, 
placing a peg at D. Divide this distance by the 
frog number, and make the perpendicular, D L, 
equal to the quotient obtained. Produce the line 
from C through L until it intersects the tangent 
from the warehouse in E, mark this point. 
Take from turnout table No. 1, in column head¬ 
ed, “Tangent, ” the distance opposite the number 
of frog used. Make C B equal to this distance, 
and B will be the heel of switch. Also make 




CURVED TRACKS. 


179 



CD 

< 


Fig. 22. 






i8o 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


C F, the same distance, and F will be a point on 
center line of turnout, opposite the point of frog. 

It now remains to join the straight lines, C E, 
and I E, with a curve. If it is desired to com¬ 
mence the curve at the point of frog, measure 
the distance, F E, and lay off an equal distance, 
E H, on the tangent El. F and H will be, re¬ 
spectively, the beginning and end of curve. To 
find the radius to join these tangents, measure 
the distance F K, putting a peg at G, midway 
and on line between F and H. Measure E G. 
The radius required will be equal to F G multi¬ 
plied by F E, and the product divided by E G. 
The curves can then be put inby the method giv¬ 
en in paragraph 5, describing how to lay out a 
curve by the eye. 

Example: — F E measures 260, F G, 254 and E G; 57.61. 
Radius = 260X254-^57.61 — 1146.5, Corresponding to a 5 
deg. curve 

If a radius is assumed, the distances to meas¬ 
ure down the tangents to set the beginning and 
end of curve must be calculated. From E, 
measure any convenient equal distances, E M 
and E P. Measure M P, putting a point N 
midway and on line between them, and measure 
E N. The tangents of the curve will be 
equal to E N multiplied by the radius and the 
product divided by M N. 

Example:—M N = 80, radius 955, E N, = 18. Tangents 
= 855 X 18-^80 = 201.5. 



CURVED TRACKS. 


1S1 


THREE METHODS OF FINDING THE DIFFERENCE IN 
LENGTH BETWEEN THE INNER AND OUTER 
RAILS OF A CURVE. 


9. 1st. The difference in length may be tak¬ 
en at 1 and 1-32 inches, per degree of curve, per 
100 ft. 

Example: —To find the length between the inner and 
outer rails on 600 ft. of 10 deg. curve. Here 10X1 1-32x6 
= 5.124 ft. = 5 ft. 1 ]/ 2 in’s. Decimal parts of a foot are re¬ 
duced to inches in table V. 

2nd. Divide the distance from center to cen¬ 
ter of the rads (ordinarily 4 ft. 11 inches equal 
4.9167 ft.) by the radius of the curve, and mul¬ 
tiply the result by the length of the curve in ft. 

Example: —Taking the same example 600 ft. of ten deg. 
curve, 4.9167-5-573.7X600 = 5.142 ft. --= 5 ft. 1^ in’s. 

3rd. Multiply the excess for a whole circum¬ 
ference, by the total number of degrees in the 
curve, * and divide the product by 360. The 
excess for a whole circumference no matter what 
the degree of curve, is equal to twice the dis¬ 
tance between rail centers multiplied by 3.1416. 

Where the distances between rail centers is 4 
ft. 11J in’s, the excess for a whole circle is 30.892 
ft. 

Example: —Taking the same example 6co ft. of io deg. 
curve. 30.892 X 600-5-360— 5- I 48 ft.—- 5 ft- l % * n s * 

For the easier curves that are laid to exact 

gauge the first method is the simplest. On 
sharper curves, where the gauge is widened, use 
the seeond method, or prepare a table by the 
third method. 



THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


182 


“BROKEN” OR “STAGGERED” JOINTS ON ' CURVES. 

10. Whenever it is required to lay “broken” 
joints on curves, and even joints on tangent, it 
is necessary to cut but one rail. Find the differ¬ 
ence in length between the inner and outer rails 
of the curve. Cut the rail so that one piece will 
be as much longer than the other piece, as the 
difference between the inner and outer rails of 
the curve. Lay the longer piece on the outside 
at the beginning of curve. Continue the joints 
thus broken until the other end of the curve is 
reached, where it wlil be necessary to lay the 
other piece of the rail that was cut to make the 
joints even again. 

When it is desired to continue “broken” joints 
through two or more curves with short tangents 
between them, it may be done by adding togeth¬ 
er the central angles of the curves turning to 
right, subtracting therefrom, all angles of curves 
to left, and treating the difference thus obtained 
as one central angle of curvature. 



CURVED TRACKS. 


183 


TABLE IV.-Middle Ordinates 
tor Curving Rails. 


> 

0 

LENGTH OF RAILS. 

bb 

0 1 

« 1 

30 ft 

28 ft 

261t 

21ft 22 ft 20 ft 


INS. 

INS. 

INS. 

INS. 

INS. 

INS. 

1 

014 

OV 

ov 

ov 

01/s 

m 

2 

01/2 

OV 

OH'S 

ov 

014 

OV 

3 

OR 

(As 

ov 

OV 

02 

ov 

4 

OR 

oi? { 

OR 

m 

01/2 

ov 

5 

I T 

I I 6 

IV 

07/ft 

0 % 

05/s 

ov 

6 

1 V 

V/4 

l,v 

ov 

034 

05* 

7 

1% 

IV 

11/4 

IV 

O'* 

OH 4 

8 

U8 

1 % 

IV 

IV 

1 

0'/8 

9 

21* 

17/8 

15/S 

13* 

m 

OR 

10 

23* 

2 V 

134 

11/2 

114 

IV 

11 

25* 

21/4 

US 

1R 

13/S 

ll/s 

12 

2R 

21/2 

21* 

US 

IV 

114 

13 

3 V 

2R 

2 V 

1R 

1% 

13k 

14 

3 V 

27's 

2V* 

2R 

134 

H/2 

15 

Q 9 

°ic» 

Q 1 
°16 

2R 

214 

US 

1 1 9 G 

10 

314 

314 

2R 

23* 

9 K 
^16 

1R 

17 

4 

31/2 

3 

2, (i 

"16 

12 

lx 

4 V 

31A 

3 V 

2! A 

9 

* 1 6 

IV 

19 

4 V 

3 V 

33* 

2/s 

2 V 

2 

20 

4R 

41/fe 

3 V 

3 

i 2 V 

21* 


ELEVATION OF CURVES. 


Degree 
of Curve. 

Length 
of Approach 

Elevation. 

Width 
of Gauge. 

8 

of 

peed 

trains. 

1 . 

60 feet. 

1 

incu .... 

4 

ft. 81/2 laches.. 

60 m. pr h. 

2 . 

120 " . 

2 

inches.... 

4 

” 8 V 2 " •• 

60 

• 1 

3. 

150 " . 

21,4 

* * . . • • 

4 

“ 834 - •• 

no 


4. 

180 - . 

134 

* * . . . , 

1 

834 “ • • 

55 


5. 

180 ” . 

1 

* * . . • • 

4 

“ 834 “ •• 

5 ' 


6 . 

210 “ . 

n 

* , , , , 

4 

“ S3 .. 

45 


7. 

210 “ ..... 

3 4 

* * .... 

i 

“ 9 “ .. 

40 

• • 

8. 

240 *• . 

534 

* * .... 

4 

•• 9 

35 


9. 

240 “ . 

1 


4 

•• 9 - .. 

30 


10. 

270 “ . 

11 

... * 

4 

“ 9 “ .. 

25 


11. 

270 *• . 

41/2 


4 

“ 91/4 .. 

20 


12 . 

tlO . 

U 4 


4 

•• 91/4 “ .. 

15 


13. 

240 *• . 

4 l 4 

.... 

4 

”91 - .. 

10 


14. 

240 - .. .. 

41 

.... 

4 

“ 91 “ .. 

10 


15. 

240 “ . 

i 

»* 

4 

91/2 “ 

10 


16. 

240 •* . 

4 

4 • 

4 

“ 91/2 “ .. 

10 



1 1. The above table for elevation of curves 
is practical, and has given satisfaction when tried 















































































: i 84 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


on a single track railroad. It is based on the 
following theories: 

All curves, when it is possible, should have an 
elevated approach on the straight main track, 
long enough for trains to have ample time to go 
on and off the curve without any shock such as there 
would be where the elevation was on the curve 
only. 

The approach should be elevated in propor¬ 
tion to the elevation on the curve, not the degree 
of curve, and carried out at each end of the 
curve 30 feet, or one rail length, for each half 
inch, or fraction thereof, of the maximum eleva¬ 
tion on the curve. The rail joint is the best 
place for trackmen to adjust the elevation when 
raising track. It requires a greater amount of 
elevation on the first three or four degrees of 
curvature to balance the cars properly, and 
change the center of gravity more towards the 
inside rail in order to allow the wheels to vibrate 
and adjust their circumference to prevent slip¬ 
ping. After this is accomplished, the same con¬ 
ditions may be maintained by only increasing the 
elevation per degree at the rate of one-fourth of 
an inch, as long as the curve is not too sharp to 
run trains at a good speed. But when a curve 
is so sharp that the speed of trains going over it 
must be reduced materially, the elevation may 
also be reduced. 

The gauge of curve track is widened for the 
reason that if the standard gauge is maintained 



TABLE V.—Inches Reduced to Decimals of a Foot. 


CURVED TRACKS 


185 


FT. 

c^o-HOioc-o-^OioacoojTfoao 

•“j'NiC^cocoTpTursiotocot-c^aoacai 

005050501050505135051350530151010 

•SNI 

^ ^<jd <-»*? ox hw iciac n>« kc 

FT. 

55iOXOC^^?OXCM^^XO?:iO 

ccccwai^cn^aiiooioOOHcpfH 

co55^r*^icic^o«^i>-30Qoa5a^oo»-H 

cx)aoaoaoaoaoaoacaoaoaoaoaoa>aaa> 

SNI 

® —cc H* oac hw iciac wt* 

FT. 

Q^^rox)Qo:iot'aiHX»ftr-a>*H 

CiflCiOO^HtOH^C^C'INC'^X 

Oifl^<0t>t^XXJ5'55OCMM(NN 

t>t't>i>c'i>c'^i>c'xxxxxa 

•SNI 

;2r -■» m -» 01 b» m 

FT. 

•uDc^c^QOooaiaiOO^^H'M^oooo^ 

CXtOOCOXCOt>t>t>t > *l>t>t>tOC* 

*SNI 

~»r <{*» *fK i/J JO bJOD 

FT. 

25^X)0^i-t*^oaoo^i^cpQOOcoir5 

XX TfiCmcD 

uS>iC*0O;C:C:0<Ct0C0:C<CC0<X>CCc5 

•SNI 

;2? -<•» rat ^2? '■' lI e»* 

FT. 

QCo^fcocooooiooai^coirit^o^H 

5iOO^OCD^h^*hCO!NC^MC^^X 

tiOOXCDt>t^ 

icioirsir^icimoioioirso^irsioioo 

•SNI 

«e ^ M 2' ^ 

FT. 

t- o«—loiac^oi-tcrsioacocfl^t’cooo 

«0rHC-Cqc~03C~jrj00I0 3e'<fO-tt , O-* 
rHNM««'i , *i'toio®toc't'OOxa> 

<p f 

•SNI 

10 

FT. 

SOif3aCO^-^ , 50Qf!>OC^'^ , cpaOOO«0 

M®COa>'tai l Ji>SOiOOiOHtpH 

nMt)i'CU5u'5Ot0t-®«O®QOH 

eojosoccooocooojocccooo^f'^"^* 

•SNI 


FT. 

8332§g§2g5gS5g8£|jS! 

lOlCXCDOC^XXOiOCOHHOJC^ 

'SNI 1” 

H 

c^o-^scior~ot-^25i2goo^2I5g2j 

bJ-uxMt'C^C'mxwa^si^ai^ 

50t~c~aocX20000- j -^s < i23iSir22; 

. 

•SNI 

<*» 

FT. 

gSS8ISS®SS8SSS3SS 

.* ‘ 

'SNI 


FT. 

glsl§lsissss?8ss 

•SNI 

"0 





























































186 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


while the curvature increases, as soon as the dif¬ 
ference between wheel flange gauge and track 

gauge is taken up, by the length of wheel base, 
the wheels can no longer turn freely and must 
therefore slip, wearing and crowding the rails, in¬ 
creasing the liability to climb the rails, and mak- 
*ng it more difficult for a locomotive to pull the 
cars. The curves on a standard gauge road need 
to be widened in the gauge, if for no other 
reason, than that . the cars of other roads which 
have a wider gauge are hauled over them. The 
gauge of curves should be widened about i-i6th 
of an inch per degree, and not to exceed one 
inch on any curve. But in order not to multi¬ 
ply the number of gauges or complicate their ad¬ 
justment, the width of gauge, as given in rule, is 
increased one-fourth of an inch for four degrees 
at once. The speed of trains as shown in rule is 
a high limit, and should not be exceeded, because 
nomatter how good a curve track is, the defects 
in rolling stoek, the length of cars and wheel 
base, the manner of coupling cars, the fact that 
inside and outside wheels are unable to turn in¬ 
dependently of each other, and many other 
causes, all tend towards liability to accident, as 
the limit in degree of curvature is approached. 

On railroads where the speed of trains is not 
limited the elevation may be increased at the 
rate of three quarters of an inch per degree of 
curvature, as high as six degrees, but this should 
be the maximum elevation except when the 




CURVED TRACKS. 


187 


curve is in a sag. 

This elevation of three-fourths of an inch per 
degree is best adapted to a double track railroad, 
or one where passenger trains run exclusively on 
one track. 

ELEVATE FOR THE GREATEST SPEED. 


12. I am decidedly of the opinion that all 
curves in track should be elevated on outside 
rail to suit the highest speed of trains passing 
over that part of the track. To assume that the 
speed of freight trains is regulated by time cards 
or rules is nonsense. It is a notorious fact that 

freight trains instead of running slower than pas- 
enger trains, do run faster than the average 

schedule time of some passenger trains, especi¬ 
ally when descending grades, trying to make up 
time or meeting points when the train is light, or, 
as is often the case, when they receive positive 
orders to run at an increased rate of speed. 

The chief aim of conductors is to make time, 
and many of them will steal time at a station 
where they are delayed if the engineer is willing 
and there is a possibility of their getting to the 
next station on time by running faster than the 
regular speed of freight trains; I have noticed 
that the speed of all trains on a single track will 
average running between stations much nearer the 
time of passenger trains than a lower rate of 
speed, as given by some authorities. 




THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


188 


For these and similar reasons I do not think it 
possible to make any average rate for speed of 
trains of all classes on a single track, nor to 
make a rule for the elevation - of curves which 
would be anything like accurate, except on a four 
track railroad where trains always run in one di¬ 
rection. Then the speed would of course be 
more regular. If a curve requires a certain ele¬ 
vation in order to carry a train safely over it at 
a speed of 45 or 50 miles per hour, it does not 
seem to me to be a reasonable theory to split the 
difference and reduce the eLevation because 
another train or a majority of the trains will run 
over the same track at a slower rate of speed. 
Reducing the elevation on curves to suit the 
speed of the slower running trains, is equivalent 
to admitting that the same elevation is enough 
for faster trains on the same track, which is not 
the case, except when the greater elevation was 
excessive. Regulate speed to suit the curve or 
elevate the curve for the greatest speed. 

SHARP CURVES AND ELEVATION. 

13. It seems remarkable to me that of all the 
different authorities on the elevation of curves 
few have seen fit to say at what degree of curva¬ 
ture elevation should stop, or when it would be 
too great for the width of the track. Various 
persons have advocated elevating the outer rail 
on curves one-half inch, ThreeTourth^'of an inch, 




CURVED TRACKS. 


189 


and as high as one inch and a quarter per degree 
of curvature, while some civil engineers have 
gone so far as to make tables givingthe elevation 
of curves from 1 up to 20 degrees for different 

rates of speed of trains, carrying the elevation 
into feet instead of inches. All of this must 
seem ridiculous to any practical trackman, who 

s 

knows it is not safe to run trains at such high 
rates of speed on very sharp curves, nor to turn 
a piece of curve track upside down in order to 
get a train around it. It seems as if some writ¬ 
ers were too superficial in the treatment of the 
subject, while others in their effort to impart 
knowledge have over-reached themselves. And 
I believe these are the causes of the conflict and 
diversity of opinion amongst railroad men of the 
present day in regard to proper elevation of 
curves. Now I maintain that the greatest eleva¬ 
tion of the outer rail on curves, no matter how 
sharp they are, should not exceed one inch to the 
foot width of track, because, when the maximum 
elevation is reached of about 5 inches, even at 
this elevation the curve is too sharp for the main 
track of any railroad where it is desirable 
to make fast time. If sharper curves are nec¬ 
essary in a yard or at other places, the elevation 
should be lessened instead of increased, because 
trains must necessarily run slow at such places. 
Instead of trying to tinker up the elevation on 
very sharp curves on the main track, so that 
trains could run around them, the company 




1 90 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


should at once take such curves out of their 
track, or at least reduce the curvature to a mini¬ 
mum. 

There is a good deal of valuable time wasted 
by trains running slow on sharp curves, and lia¬ 
bility to accident is much greater than on straight 
track. 

There is also an immense amount of wear and 
tear on the rolling stock and track, especially 
the wheels and rails, and the amount of money 
lost is so great on account of the limited number 
of freight cars which may be hauled that the sav¬ 
ing which could be effected in a short time on 
some railroads with a heavy traffic would pay all 
the expense of taking such curves out of the 
track when it is possible to dispense with them. 
The necessity for economy in the construction of 
a new road is in most instances the only excuse 
for having sharp curves in the track. When it is 
possible, railroad companies should take out of 
their main track, as fast as they can afford the 
means for carrying on the work, every curve 
which will not admit of running trains at a speed 
of 60 miles per hour or which will materially af¬ 
fect the number of cars a locomotive can haul. 

The opinion seems to be general amongst the leading 
track men and engineers of the present day, that the 
easement of sharp curves -by compounding them on the 
approach, so as to have the least amount of curvature next 
the tangent, and gradually increase the degree up to the 
middle of the curve where it should be greatest is .he best 
method of securing a good riding track for trains which 
run at high rates of speed. 



CURVED TRACKS. 


IQI 


W hen laying out Reverse Curves of one two or three de¬ 
grees, there should be left between them not less than 60 

4 

feet of a level tangent, and this distance should be in¬ 
creased in proportion to the degree of curvature, either 
side of the tangent to enable track men to put in a gradual 
approach to each curve when elevating the outer rail. 

Curves should not be put in on any railroad except where 
the natural conditions are such, that their use cannot be 
avoided. Or where the economy in cost of construction is 
so great that their benefits as against disadvantages, can be 
•clearly demontrated. 


WHEN SPEED DOES NOT EXCEED FIFTEEN MILES 

PER HOUR. 


14. On any curve where the speed of trains 
•does not exceed fifteen miles per hour an eleva¬ 
tion of the outside rail equal to the middle ordi¬ 
nate of a thirty foot rail on the same curve 
will be sufficient. 

Rule.— For every degree of curve give the 
outside rail one-fourth of an inch elevation, wid¬ 
ening the gauge of track for each degree as in 
rule for elevating the outside rail of curves. 

THE CURVE ON PASSING TRACK, ET*C. 


15. On curves where the speed is less than 
ten miles per hour, such as those beyond the 
switch leads on yard or “Y” tracks, elevate the 
outside rails as follows: 

Rule:—C ommence at one degree, giving 





192 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


J inch elevation, and for every degree of curve 
thereafter increase the elevation at the rate of 3- 
16 of an inch to the degree of curve, widening 
the gauge as in rule for elevation. There should 
never be any elevation in the lead rails of switch¬ 
es between the heel of frog and end of switch. 

TABLE OF ORDINATES. 

16. The following table showing how to find 
the degree of a curve by the middle ordinate, 
with strings or cords of different lengths, will 
be of great value to section foremen who have 
heretofore had no instruction on this subject. 
The reason why so many different lengths of 
cord are given with the ordinate is that the fore¬ 
man who desires to be accurate with his work 
may use any of them as circumstances may re¬ 
quire. 


Length of Chord 

Middle Ordinate of 

Feet. 

Degree Curve. 

20 feet. 

1 

Inch 

30 feet. 

1 

Inch 

44 feet. 

i 

Inch 

50 feet.. 

5 

Inch 

62 feet. 


Inch 

100 feet. 

0 f> 

Inches 

120 feet. 

: • . t 


Inches 











CURVED TRACKS. 


! 93 


EXAMPLE. 


BAIL 




^^44 Foot 

\ Cord 


Fig. 23.—Four Degree Curve. 

The above illustration Fig. 23, will show how 
to apply any of the different lengths of string in 
the table of ordinates and to ascertain the de¬ 
gree of curve. 


HOW TO APPLY IT. 

17. Draw a cord tight on the inside of the 
gauge line of the rails on a curve, measure from 
the center of the cord to the rail. The distance 
in inches divided by the middle ordinate for that 
length of cord as shown in the table will give 
you the degree of the curve. 

COMPOUND CURVES. 

18. When the greater degree of a compound 
curve begins at about the middle of the curve, 
elevate the outside rail gradually from the ap¬ 
proach of curve, giving the elevation which be¬ 
longs to the greater degree, when you reach it. 









194 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


In the same manner lessen the elevation as you 
approach the straight track at the opposite end 
of the curve. 

If the greater degree is met at the point of 
curve, and the curve terminates with a less de¬ 
gree elevate the outside rail for the greater de¬ 
gree until you come to where it meets the less 
degree; then diminish the elevation one-half inch 
to the rail length until you reach the elevation 
which properly belongs to the less degree of 
curve, then continue this elevation to the oppo¬ 
site end or the approach of the curve. 

FREQUENT CHANGES. 

rV 

19. Where the changes are frequent and ab¬ 
rupt in a compound curve, it is generally best to 
elevate the outer rail for the highest degree and 
carry this elevation uniformly throughout the 
curve. Never change the elevation more than 
one-half inch, in a rail length in passing from one 
degree of curve to another, otherwise a swing or 
a jar will be felt in passing over that place on a 
train. 


CURVE TRACK GAUGES. 

20. Section foremen should be provided with 
a special gauge for gauging curves, and made in 
such a manner that when adjusted properly for 



CURVED TRACKS. 


J 95 


work the width of gauge could not be accidenal- 
ly changed. Track should be spiked accurately.. 

LAYING THE RAILS ON CURVES! 

21. No rails should ever be laid in track and 
spiked on any curve of over two degrees without 
hrst being curved the proper shape. The middle 
ordinate of a 30 foot rail is one-fourth of an inch 
on a one degree curve wiih very little variation 
up to 10 degrees and is so nearly proportionate 
to the degree of curve, that it can be used as a 
guide in curving rails. 

TO CURVE A RAIL PROPERLY. 


22. Bend or curve the rail through its entire 
length until the middle ordinate of the rail equals 
as many quarter inches as there are degrees in 
the curve for which ycu are preparing it. 
To ascertain this, stretch a string between the 
extreme points of the rail on the gauge side and 
measure the distance from the center of the 
string to the gauge side of the rail at its center. 
For foremen who have not had much practice in 
curving rails it is best to also measure the dis¬ 
tance from the string to the rail at the quarters, 
seven and on-half feet from the end of a 20 foot 
rail, and this distance should be three quarters of 
what it is at the center of the rail. By measure- 




THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


196 

ments taken at the quarters it is generally easy 
to detect a kink in the rail, which should always 
be taken out. Rails which have a true curve 
will be in their place in the track ready for spik¬ 
ing and gauging without being held or drawn to 
place with the bar and will not need rail braces 
except on very sharp curves laid with soft wood 
ties. The more accurate the curve of rails, the 
less lining of track will be needed afterwards. 

THE CURVE APPROACH. 

23. Where the elevation here given is not di¬ 
visible evenly into half inches, elevate for the ad¬ 
ditional fourth of an inch at the point of curve,, 
just as if it were a half-inch. 

To illustrate: take a three degree curve, ele¬ 
vation two and one-half inches, length of ap¬ 
proach on straight line 150 feet or five rail 
lengths from point of curve. Elevate the first 
rail on the straight line one-half inch, the second 
one inch, the third one and one-half inches, the 
the fourth two inches, and the fifth joint, or 
point of curve, two and orfe-half inches, the full 
elevation. This elevation should then be carried 
uniformly to the other end of the curve where it 
should be eased off on the straight line in the 
same manner as the approach. 



CURVED TRACKS. 


197 


PRINTED INFORMATION FOR FOREMEN. 

24. On all curves of over three degrees it 
would be a good policy to have a plainly painted 
sign showing the degree of the curve and the 
speed at which trains should run when passing 
there. For the sake of economy, the informa¬ 
tion could be given on a board set in a telegraph 
pole near the curve. There could also be a rule 
on the time card calling the attention of the em¬ 
ployes most interested to the subject. There is 
no good reason why a foreman placed in charge 
of a piece of track should not receive all the in¬ 
formation relative thereto that it is possible for 
the railroad company to give him, instead of hav¬ 
ing to find it out for himself as best he can. 
Printed information from the engineering depart¬ 
ment should suppliment the track foreman s other 
instructions and in most cases it would materially 
assist in bettering the condition of the road , and 
bring more uniformity into the work. If every sec¬ 
tion foreman was provided with a little book giving 
location, degree and amount of elevation of the out¬ 
er rail on the curves on his section, together with 
location, size and number of all culverts and bridg¬ 
es, and distance from stations, also amount of snow 
fence on cuts, and kind and quantity of rails laid 
etc. It would be placing the information where 
it would be of the most practical value to the 
railroad company. 




198 THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


GUARD RAILS ON CURVES.. 

25. When speed of trains exceed twenty 
miles per hour, curves of ten degrees or over 
should have a guard rail inside the inner rail of 
curve. This guard rail should be spiked down 
on the ties all the way around the curve and turn 
off from the track rail at each end of the curve. 
The space for the wheel flanges between the 
guard rail and track rail should be two inches 
wide. The extra width over standard gauge as 
given in the table for elevation of curves 
should be added where the degree of curve 
makes it necessary to widen the gauge of track. 

BETWEEN REVERSE CURVES. 

26. Where straight track between two re¬ 
verse curves is not long enough to give the out¬ 
side rail the required elevation before reaching; 
the point of either curve, begin to elevate the 
outside rail at a point mid-way between the 
curves, and give the first rail one-half inch ele¬ 
vation, after which you can increase the eleva¬ 
tion one-half inch to the rail length, or one inch 
if necessary for sharp curves. When there is a 
difference of one or more degrees in two reverse 
curves the greater degree should have the longer 
approach. Reverse curves should be well sur¬ 
faced, and the track made as perfect as possible,, 




CURVED TRACKS. 


199 


and between the approaches of the reverse 
curves there ought to be at least 60 feet of level 
track, where the distance between curves will al¬ 
low it. 


PUTTING THE ELEVATION IN CURVES. 

27. If the surface level of the whole track 
throughout a curve is good, and without any sags, 
you can give the curve the proper elevation with 
one-half the labor by only picking up the low 
spots along on the inside rail of the curve and 
raising the outside rail of the curve out of a face 
to give it the required elevation. When only the 
outside rail of a curve is raised up, always be 
particular to get the ballast under all of the ties 
which are raised out of their old bed. When 
dressing curve track between the rails keep the 
highest point of the material a little closer to the 
outside rail of the curve about one fourth of the 
gauge of the track. This allows most of the water 
which falls on the track to run off under the in¬ 
side rail of the curve. If the highest point of 
the material used to dress the center of the track 
is left midway between the rails as on straight 
track any water which falls upon the track can¬ 
not readily run off under the outside rail of a 
curve which has three or four inches of eleva¬ 
tion, and in many places the track will be seri¬ 
ously injured by water settling down under the 
outside rail and between the track ties. When- 




200 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ever you raise only the outside rail of a curve to 
give it elevation, some allowance should be made 
for the track settling on that side, when the 
height of the raise exceeds two inches. For in¬ 
stance should you raise the outside rail of a 
curve to give it two and one-half inches eleva¬ 
tion on a dirt ballasted track without having to 
take up the the inside rail, the outside rail should 
have an elevation of about three inches all 
around the curve if the bed of the track is soft 
or the fill narrow. 

RULE FOR LINING CURVES. 


D 



Fig. 24 . 

EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAM. 

The letters A B C to G are track centers of a curve 30 feet apart. 

Figure 2 is a 60 foot line with which to ascertain the middle ordinate. 

Figure 3 shows where the measurements should be taken to find the 
middle ordinate. 

28. Select any part of a curve track which 
seems to be in the best line for a distance of at 
least 60 feet, but do not begin at the points of a 
curve unless you know postively that the curve 






CURVED TRACKS. 


231 


turns off from the straight track without leaving 
a swing in the line. 

Set two stakes accurately in the center of the 
track, 60 feet apart, and one in the center of the 
track at the middle of the 60 feet. These three 
points are shown in figure 24 by the letters A, B, 
and C. Now stretch a cord tight from A to C, 
and measure from the center of the cord indica¬ 
ted by the figure 2, to the center stake, B. 

The result should be your guide as a middle 
ordinate for th3 balance of the curve in either 
direction from where you commence work. We 
will suppose this middle ordinate to be four inch¬ 
es. You next move the cord 30 feet ahead in 
the direction in which you wish to line, stopping 
at B, with the end you had first at A, and hold¬ 
ing the end of cord which was at C in your hand 
until its center is directly opposite and distant 
just four inches from the track center, at C. 
You may then set track center D at the end of 
the cord which you hold in your hand. 

This process may be carried out until you have 
set track centers for the whole curve. 

Every stake set for a track center should be 
driven into the ground with its inside face or 
edge touching the cord, and this side of the 
stakes should be a straight edge if possible, so as 
to have a uniform center throughout the curve 
and along the inside face of all the stakes. 
This will obviate the necessity for using a tack 
to make an accurate center on the stakes. 




202 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


After you have set the track centers for the 

i 

whole curve, procure a gauge which is square and 
true, and mark on the gauge, with some sharp 
instrument, the correct center between track rails 
or middle of the gauge. Place this gauge on the 
track between the rails and over the track center 
where you wish to begin lining the rails to place. 
Then have your men move the track with their 
lining bars until the center, as marked on the 
gauge, comes directly over the track center on 
the stakes. Move the track in this manner at ev¬ 
ery point where you have set a track center 
stake, and then go back over it again, taking out 
any kinks or other defects left in the line, and 
you will have a splendid and a true curve line on 
your track, as good as if a civil engineer had set 
your track centers with an instrument. 

Care should be taken not to make any mistakes 
in measuring the middle ordinates, or in setting 
the track centers. It will pay to take your time 
and do the job well, because if properly done 
(like well surfaced track) it will only need to be 
retouched in spots ever after. 

By commencing at a rail joint, this method of 
lining a curve may also be applied to the gauge 
side of the rails, and any defects in the track line 
can be taken out by moving the rails to place as 
you go, but the work will not be as accurate or 
as reliable as by the process first given. 



CURVED TRACKS. 


203 


EFFECT OF LOCOMOTIVE AND CAR WHEELS ON 

CURVE TRACK. 

29. Car wheels which are badl}’ worn on the 
ties, or close to the flanges, or which have the 
flanges worn sharp, are very unsafe when pass¬ 
ing over switches if there is the slightest lip on 
the rails. They are dangerous also on battered 
rails, or going around sharp curves, where they 
are liable to climb the rails and leave the track. 
Wheels of the kind mentioned have a tendency 
to hug the rail on their side of the track, and as 
a consequence make a considerable wear along 
the gauge side of the ball of the rails. They al¬ 
so wear spots along the top surface of the outer 
rail on curves, because the circumference of the 
wheel being the same or worn smaller at the 
flange than at the outside, the wheel 
must slip a certain amount in proportion 
to the degree of curvature, in order to travel as 
fast as the wheel on the inside rail. When the 
gauge of the track on sharp curves is the same 
and not wider than the standard for straight 
track, the car wheels do not have play enough to 
enlarge the circumference of the wheel tire upon 
the outside rail of the curve, and the result is a 
wearing of the top surface of the rail the same 
as mentioned above. When the drive wheels of 
an engine are allowed to run too long without 
being turned off, the groove worn in the tire of¬ 
ten causes considerable damage to track before 



204 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


the cause is known. Badly worn drive wheels 
break the frog points when passing over switches^ 
and as a general rule the most of the wear on 
the rails on curve track is chargeable to the 
same source. 


ELEVATION BALANCE. 


30. • On curve track where there is not enough 
elevation or the gauge of track is tight, the car 
wheels wear off the gauge side of the outer rail, 
by the wheel flanges crowding against it and this 
causes the track to spread and become unsafe. 
If the elevation of the outside rail of a curve is 
excessive, the rails will wear most from the top 
surface downward and on the inside rail of curve. 
It also forces the inside rail below the proper 
surface. 

It does not make the track any safer for trains 
and lessens the number of freight cars that an 
engine can haul over them. Especially is this 
the case when the elevation is excessive on sharp 
curves at terminal stations where trains run very 
slow. 


LIABILITY OF DERAILMENT. 

31. The liability of accident to trains such as 
the derailment of locomotive or cars is much 
greater on a curve track than on a straight track, 




CURVED TRACKS. 


205 


and a large percentage of the accidents which do 
happen is chargeable to defects in the rolling 
stock as well as to the defects in the track itself. 
Heavily loaded freight cars often leave the track 
owing to the failure of a truck to adjust itself to 
the curve of the track, caused, perhaps, by a de¬ 
fective curve roller, and the greater part of the 
load resting upon one side of the truck. 

REDUCED SPEED. 

32. Curves of ten degrees or more are not 
common on the main line of standard gauge rail¬ 
roads. When they do occur the speed of trains 
should be reduced in proportion as the degree of 
curve increases. 

A CURVE IN A SAG. 

33. When a curve is approached from both 
directions by a heavy down grade the speed of 
all trains is greater there than at any other point 
on the track, and for this reason it should have 
all the elevation necessary to carry trains safely 
at their greatest speed. Foremen should give 
such a curve half an inch more elevation and an 
approach thirty feet longer than the amounts 
stated in the table for elevation of curves. 



206 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


CARE OF CURVES. 

34. The rails on curves could be made to 
wear much longer if those which showed signs 
of wear were transferred to the opposite side of 
track before they become badly worn. A de¬ 
pression of three-fourths of an inch in the sur¬ 
face of track on the outside rails, or a slight kink 
in a rail on a curve, or a joint out of line or 
gauge, will throw every car in a train heavily to 
the opposite side of the track. For this reason 
track foremen should keep curve track in the 
best condition possible. 

LINING CURVES. 

35. Some foremen have a very bad habit of 
always lining the curves out. This should not 
be done. The tendencv of engines and cars is 
to knock parts of the curves towards the outside 
at the weakest points. If the foreman will line 
towards the inside of the curve any joints or rails 
which project beyond the true line of curve, 
there will not be any necessity of increasing the 
curvature by lining so much towards the outside. 

STRAIGHT RAILS IN CURVES. 


36. When iron or steel rails are laid in curve 



CURVED TRACKS. 


207 


track without first being curved, or just as they 
come from the rolling mill, the joints soon pro¬ 
ject out of line, and by the knocking of the 
train wheels against the joints they are partly as¬ 
sisted to get back to their original shape, de¬ 
stroying the proper line of curve. Such rails 
give the cars passing over them a peculiar side 
motion which makes the track appear very rough, 
no matter how well surfaced it may be. 

NUMBER OF RAILS WANTED ON CURVES. 

37. Foremen in charge of laying track where 
curves are common and of different degrees, 
should have a good intelligent man to keep ahead 
of the steel car and ascertain from the engineer’s 
stakes, as nearly as possible, number of rails, 
straight or curved, and degree of curve for the 
next iron or steel wanted at the front. This can 
be done best by the foreman in charge of the 
steel car having alignment notes of the work as 
laid out by the engineers, showing the number of 
feet of curved or straight track and giving the 
•degree of curve. When the above plan is not 
followed rails can be seen along the road 
in piles of different sizes behind the track layers 
where it was thrown off from time to time by 
the steel car crew in order to go back and get the 
kind wanted next. Considerable time and labor 
which could as well have been saved is expended 
in picking up the surplus rails along the track. 



208 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


FOREMEN SHOULD KNOW THE DEGREE. 

38. Foremen in charge of curving rails 
should know before hand the degree of each 

curve and the number of rails wanted for it, so 
as to have no delay in getting them to the front 
when called for. 


A GOOD CURVE. 

39. A curve track is put up properly when 
the engine and all the cars in a train run smooth¬ 
ly on to the point of a curve from straight track 
without any shock or jar that would indicate 
there was a change in the line or surface of the 
track. All the cars in a train should run around 
the curve leaning slightly towards the inside rail, 
and not change this position perceptibly until 
the straight track is reached again at the oppo¬ 
site end of the curve. Above all things, foremen 
should keep the surface of a curve track as smooth 
as possible. In this more than in anything else 
lies the secret of having a good riding track. 

DANGEROUS CARS ON CURVES. 

40. I am fully convinced that it is both a 
fool-hardy and dangerous policy to allow the cars 
from any road with a 4 foot 9 inch gauge to run 
on a standard gauge road unless the flanges of 




CURVED TRACKS. 


209 


all wheels have “the same clearance” room be¬ 
tween them and the rails as is allowed for the 
standard gauge wheels. The Inter-State Com¬ 
merce Commission reports for 1889 shows 387 rail¬ 
roads with a mileage of 28,939 miles of 4 foot 9 
inchgauge, while of the standard gauge there is 
1,030 roads operating 114, 148 miles which shows 
that with all our boasted progress there is yet near¬ 
ly one-fifth of the railroad mileage of the country 
which does not conform to the standard gauge 
although the freight business of all these roads 
is inter-changeable. 

It is a notorious fact that the cars of a rail¬ 
road with a 4 foot 9 inch gauge are the ones 
which are oftenest derailed when running on 
standard gauge track both on the main track 
and at switches, and on curves, and when not 
wrecked or derailed they are continually damag¬ 
ing the standard gauge track and spreading the 
rails out of proper line and gauge. Their wheels 
run more on the flange than on the tread of the 
wheel and in so doing soon make said flanges 
very sharp and dangerous, peeling and wearing 
away the innner side of the track rails and al¬ 
ways ready to climb the outer rail or curves, 
they are derailed by the slightest lip on a stub 
switch, and often run foul of a frog point. 

These wheels have to be changed so often that 
it adds another large item to the cost of car re¬ 
pairs, and if the whole of the damage to track and 
other defects that are chargeable to this ruinous 



210 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


system were summoned up and kept account of, 
we would have an exhibition of one of the most 
dangerous and expensive methods of operating 
railroads. 

How often has one of these wide gauge trucks 
jumped the track and wrecked a train on some 
sharp curve without leaving a clew for those who 
come to investigate the cause of the accident. 
Probably the track will be torn up and every¬ 
thing in confusion and some person will say that 
the trouble was caused by spreading of the rails 
or an improper adjustment of the elevation of 
the outer rail on the curve or something else just 
as far from the truth. 

As a remedy for the foregoing, I would suggest 
that all standard gauge railroad's which inter¬ 
change traffic should make it a rule to have the 
wheels on all cars received at junction points, 
examined and tested with a standard wheel gauge, 
and those not conforming to the proper speci¬ 
fications should be rigidly excluded, and wheels 
of a correct pattern should be put under the cars 
to replace those which are defective, the cost to 
be charged up to the company owning the de¬ 
fective wheels. 




FALL TRACK WORK. 


21 I 





CHAPTER VI. * 

i, Fall Track Work —2, Cleaning off the Right of Way 
—3, Raising up Sags in Track, Surface Fig. 25—4, Nar¬ 
row Embankments—5, Haul Out Material from Cuts— 
6, To Remedy too wide an Opening at the Joints. 

7 , Building Fences— 8, Board Fences—9, Fence Tables— 
10, Weight of Nails—11, Weight of Fence Wire—12, A 
Dav's Labor. 

FALL TRACK WORK. 


1. Track foremen will find plenty of work to 
do during the fall months before the ground 
freezes, preparing their sections to go through 
the long winter months with as little repair work 
as possible. If the weather is good more work 
can be done (which will benefit the track) in one 
month before the ground freezes than can be per¬ 
formed during the whole winter. 

Section foremen should find all the worst 

















212 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


places in the track and repair them in the best 
manner possible. 

Special attention should be given to improv¬ 
ing the surface of the track and putting a per¬ 
fect line and gauge on the rails. 

The roadbed should be cleared of weeds and 
grass and the ballast along the shoulder of the 
track and between the rails should he dressed up 
neatly; joint fastenings should be made tight, and 
the ditches in all cuts should be cleaned out. 

Any rotten ties remaining in the track should 
be taken out and replaced by new ones. 

All new steel* should be laid before cold weath¬ 
er. The joint ties should be spaced properly 
and ballast put under the track, and at other 
points on the road where steel is not laid good re¬ 
pair rails should be put into the track to replace 
those which have become battered. Dead grass, 
weeds and other rubbish should be cut or cleaned 
away from around the woodwork of all bridges, 
culverts or cattle guards and the rubbish should 
be gathered up and burned. 

In a prairie country the grass along the right 
of way on both sides of the track should be 
burned off clean as quick as it is dry enough, 
and the tops of the cuts should be burned off 
first, to prevent the locomotives from setting fires 
on farm lands adjoining. All right of way fen¬ 
ces should be examined and repaired and snow 
fences should be put in good condition to be 
ready for the first snow storm. All track niateri- 



FALL TRACK WORK. 


213 


al should be piled at the stations, a safe distance 
from the track, and where it would not cause 
snow drifts or be liable to catch fire. 

Rails, splices and other such material should 
be raised from the ground and piled upon plat¬ 
forms of old ties so there will be no difficulty in 
handling them after snow falls on the ground. 

All ties, fence posts, engine wood, or lumber, 
should be corded up with spaces between the 
piles so that in case of fire it could not commu¬ 
nicate to a large quantity at once. Emergency 
rails and joint splices should be placed at the 
mile posts along the section where they would be 
handy in case of broken rails. Much of the fall 
track work is the same as that done during the 
spring or summer. But foremen should be par¬ 
ticular to do this season of the year all work 
which can only be imperfectly done in the winter 
or must wait over until the following spring. 


CLEANING OFF THE RIGHT OF WAY. 


2. In the latter part of the month of July, 
or before the weeds growing along the railroad 
right of way run to seed, the section foreman 
should commence mowing, and cutting down all 
prass, brush and weeds from the shoulder of the 
track out to the right of way limits. 1 his work 
should be pushed when once begun, and as soon 
thereafter as the material which was mowed 



214 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


down is dry enough, it should be gathered into 
piles and burned clean, or disposed of in some 
way, without danger to the company's property. 

The grass and weeds growing around the ends 
of culverts, or close to the bridges, should be 
mowed down, while the surrounding grass is still 
so green it will not burn, in order that the mowed 
grass, when dry, may be burnt without danger of 
the wind spreading the hre, and to prevent other 
fires from reaching the wood work, when burn¬ 
ing off the right of way afterwards. In locali¬ 
ties where the sections are long, and only a small 
force of men is employed, the right of way 
mowing is sometimes only done for a short dis¬ 
tance out from the shoulder on each side along 
the track, and the balance of the right of way is 
left to be burnt off later in the fall. 

RAISING UP SAGS IN TRACK SURFACE. 

3. It frequently happens that a track fore¬ 
man will undertake to raise the track in a sag up 
to level surface without any knowledge of the 
amount of material necessary to put under the 
track or the time it will require to do the work 
with the force at his command. In some cases, 
the time consumed in taking up a sag is so great 
that other parts of the track which should be at¬ 
tended to are neglected. The following simple 
rule will enable track foreman to make a very 
close estimate of the amount of labor and ma- 



FALL TRACK WORK. 


215 


terial required to bring any sag up to surface. 

Rule:— Set two stakes. A and B, close to the 
track rails and level with their top surface at 
each end of the sag, as shown in Figure 25. 
Then set a third stake C at the middle of the 
sag and in line with A and B, and drive it down 
until the top of it is level with the tops of the 
outer two stakes. You can ascertain whether 
this is the case by sighting over A and B, Meas¬ 
ure the height of stake C above the ground and 
multiply it by the distance in feet from A to B, 
and again multiply the product by fourteen or 
sixteen feet for the width of the embankment. 
This will give you the contents in cubic feet and 
dividing the whole number of cubic feet by fifty- 
four will be the number of cubic yards of dirt cr 
ballast which will be required to surface up the 
sag. If the sag is deeper than twelve inches an 
allowance of one foot in width for each foot in 
depth should be made up for the side slopes. An 
allowance of about one-sixth of the depth be¬ 
low level in some cases should be made on the 
middle of light sags when surfacing up. This 
can best be done by leveling a sight board the 
proper height in the middle of the sag and sight¬ 
ing the track to it from one end, and from that 
point sighting the rails to where the sag runs out 
at the other end. A sag, which has only been 
raised level with the track on eachside of it, will 
soon become low again in the middle unless made 
very solid. 






216 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 



LO 

if 

il 































FALL TRACK WORK. 


217 


NARROW EMBANKMENTS. 


4. Many section foremen have a habit of 
digging holes in the embankment just out¬ 
side the ends of the track ties when they want a 
little dirt or ballast to pick up or dress track. 
This is all wrong. On a mud track if material 
is wanted for this purpose it should be taken 
from the nearest cut with the section push car or 
if the fill is not very deep the foreman should set 
his men throwing up dirt from outside the bottom 
of the original fill. There the necessary materi¬ 
al can be procured without injuring the embank¬ 
ment, sufficiently to make it liable to wash away 
or weakening it as a support for the track. The 
preference should always be given to material 
from a cut even when the cost is a little greater. 
A double purpose is served by removing the sur¬ 
plus which accumulates in the ditches and put¬ 
ting it on the fill to strengthen it. Of course, 
where track is ballasted with gravel, or odier 
like material, dirt should not be mixed with it, 
but when only a small quantity of material is 
needed it can be taken from places where the 
ballast is the heaviest along the shoulder of the 
track. Whenever any material is taken from a 
grade or wasted thereon, such places should be 
leveled off, dressed and finished up in a work¬ 
man like manner. Never leave unsightly holes 
along the track. Both sides of the embankment 




2 18 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


should be of the same width outside the ties, if 
possible, and grass should be encouraged to grow 
along the slopes, because it offers the best pro¬ 
tection against weeds and washouts. Section 
foremen should not attempt to raise up track on 
high narrow tills in order to surface it. At such 
places it is always best to pick up and tamp only 
joints or other low places in the rail, and keep 
the track in good line until you can get enough 
dirt or ballast to leave a good shoulder outside 
the ties after raising up the track to surface. 

HAUL OUT MATERIAL FROM CUTS. 

5. Where the distance between cuts is short, 
and the track fill between is high and narrow, 
section foremen should make good wide ditches 
in the cuts, and haul out on their push car the 
material from the ditches, and distribute it even¬ 
ly on both sides of the track. This work should 
be done either early in the spring, or late in the 
fall of the year, or when the facilities for doing 
other work are not good. 


TO REMEDY TOO WIDE AN OPENING AT THE JOINTS. 

6. Track is often laid with too wide an open¬ 
ing at the joints, and as a result the ends of the 
rails batter down very quickly and the joint 
splices often break and tear apart, owing to the 
contraction of the rails in extremely cold weather. 



FALL TRACK WORK. 


21 g 


Track foremen who are troubled with this state 
of affairs should try to remedy it at once in the 
following manner: 

Loosen the bolts in forty or fifty joints and 
pull out all the slot spikes which are used to con¬ 
trol the expansion, whether driven in the rail 
slot or joint fastenings. Then select a space 
about midway to take out one or two of the rails 
on each side of the track. Have ready, to re¬ 
place the rails which you take out, one or two 
rails the combined length of which will be six or 
eight inches greater than that of the rails which 
you take out, allowing this length to be a little 
less than the total amount you wish to close the 
joints. Have your men get astride of one loose 
rail, lift it up and bunt back the track rails on 
each side of the opening until it is wide enough 
to admit of putting in the longer rails, then bolt 
and spike the rails to place, dividing the expan¬ 
sion on the other joints afterwards. 

Follow out this method at different points 
along your section wherever you see it is neces¬ 
sary, and you will have no more trouble with 
rails tearing apart in cold weather, endangering 
trains and increasing your responsibility. The 
rails will wear much longer, and you can keep a 
much better surface on the track. But foremen 
should exercise judgment in this matter and be 
sure that the expansion is so distributed that 
there will be no danger of making the joints too 
tight for warm weather. 




220 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


When you have fixed a piece of track the 
above away, provide some new ties and put one 
into track under zhc center of even) rail joint 
which has been moved out of its place on the 
track ties, when you were shifting the rails. 

Both jobs should always be done at the same 
time and low joints tamped up to surface, the ties 
spaced properly so that the spikes may be 
driven in their proper places and prevent track 
creeping. 


BUILDING FENCES. 

7. It is sometimes the duty of section fore¬ 
men to build wire fences along the railroad right 
of way limits; and as there are manv foremen 
who have had no experience in this branch of 
work, it will not be out of place to here give a 
good practical method for performing this duty. 

Measure with a tape line from the center of 
the track to the right of way limits, which is gen¬ 
erally fifty feet, and set a stake in the ground. 
This should be the outside face of the fence 
posts when set in the ground. Where the track 
is straight these measurements need be taken on¬ 
ly at distances of forty or eighty rods, but around 
a curve they should be taken every sixty or hun¬ 
dred feet, in order to have the fence conform to 
the line of the track. 

Peel the bark from all fence posts and set 
their centers sixteen feet apart, when not other- 




FALL TRACK WORK. 


22 I 


wise ordered, so that boards may be nailed on 
them if desired. To line the fence and regulate 
the distance between posts, use a chain or line 
two hundred feet long for straight track, and one 
hundred feet, or less, for curve track. Have tin 
tags at regular distances on your chain, or tie 
knots in the line to mark where the center of 
each post hole should come, and when the line is 
stretched, take a spade and remove a little of 
the sod or top surface of the ground opposite the 
marks on the line as a guide for the men dig¬ 
ging the post holes. The line may then be 
moved ahead. 

Set all posts two and one-half feet in the 
ground, and have the men who are digging, car- 
ry a measuring stick with which to determine the 
correct depth of the post holes, and thus have 
all the posts of a uniform height above the 
ground. A good way to save sighting along 
straight track is to set a post every forty or 
eighty rods with a temporary brace, and stretch 
one wire of the fence to use as a guide to set 
them by. 

When putting on the wires, if you are not fur¬ 
nished a wire stretcher, the wire may be tighten¬ 
ed by taking a turn of it around a lining bar. 
Stick the point of the bar in the ground diago¬ 
nally from you,and pull on the top of bar with the 
right hand. In this way you can take up the 
slack. 

Fence wire should not be stretched too tight in 



222 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


warm weather, or it will break when it contracts 
in the winter. Always put the wire on the far¬ 
mer’s side of the fence posts, except on the in¬ 
side of curves. Then the wire should be on the 
track side of the posts, to strengthen the fence. 
A good brace should be put in at the end of 
each piece of fence, or at any point where the 
fence turns an angle at the end of fence, also at 
farm gates and cattle guards. See figs. 26-27. 

Mortice one end of the brace into the top of 
the corner post, and the other end into the bot¬ 
tom of the post adjoining, where it enters the 
ground. Provide a board with notches cut into 
it at distances equal to the proper space between 
the wires. The wires may be hung in the notch¬ 
es, and the board will keep them in position 
while they are being fastened to the posts. 

Have the men well organized. Divide a gang 
of sixteen about as follows: Assign two men to 
lay out the fence; six to dig post holes; four to 
set the posts; and four to string the wires and 
fasten them. Move the men occasionally from 
parts of the work which are the most advanced, 
to parts which are behind. When crossing creeks 
or marshy places, it is well to turn the fence in 
at right angle to end of the bridge and string the 
wires across on the piles. 

Order material as follows: fence wire, one 
pound lor every single wire panel of sixteen feet; 
staples, one and three fourth pounds for each 
hundred pounds or spool of wire used. 



FALL TRACK WORK. 


223 


When spacing wires, have the bottom wires the 
closest together. Forinstance, fora five wire fence 
iour and one half feet high, place bottom wire 

•eight inches above the ground; the second wire 
ten inches above the first, and the other three 
wires each twelve inches above the last, or the 
third wire from the bottom could be spaced ten 
inches above the second, and the top wire four¬ 
teen inches above the fourth. The latter is the 
best method where it is desirable to fence against 
all kinds of stock. The top of fence posts 
should not be more than six inches above the 
top wire of the fence, and all posts when set and 
tamped solid should be all in perfect line and a 
uniform height from the ground. When posts 
are irregular in length, the surplus timber should 
be sawed off if it amounted to four or more 
inches, but where the post is only two or three 
inches too long, the hole may be deepened suffi¬ 
ciently to leave it the proper height when set. 

If a post is two or three inches short fill up 
the hole sufficiently to bring it to the right height 
above the ground. But should it be as much as 
six inches too short, do not use it in the fence 
except at some places where it would answer for 
a short brace. To regulate the height of fence 
posts above the ground, have a standard made 
the correct height and nail square across the bot¬ 
tom of it a cross piece two feet long, which will 
prevent slight inequalities in the surface of the 
ground from affecting the height when placed 





224 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


beside the post. This standard can also 
be arranged to regulate the distance between the 
boards or wires as they a r e nailed on the fence. 

A fence with the top wire or top board four 
and one half feet from the ground is a lawful 
fence in most of the states. 


BOARD FENCES. 


8. In building a board fence, the setting of 
posts and nailing on of the boards, can be done 
at the same time. Alwavs use the shortest 

j 

boards to measure from one post to the next one 
to be set; the longer boards can be sawed the 
proper length. Nail the boards on the outside of 
the fence. Several men can be nailing on boards 
at once, by ending the boards against those last 
nailed on the adjoining panel. On straight track, 
sighting posts can be set at the proper distance 
from the track, every forty or sixty rods ahead of 
the men digging the post holes. But on curve 
track, to make a good fence and have it in line, 
every panel post should be measured from the 
center of track, and a stake set for it. This is 
not much of a job, if two men go along the 
track carrying the tape line stretched from place 
to place, while a third man sets stakes for the 
posts. By laying a board against the two panel 
posts, it lines the place for the middle posts. A 
bracket, made the proper height from the ground 






22 D 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 











FALL TRACK WORK 


227 


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After securing the wire with staples at bottom of post C, take it again around B and finish at 
double wire, and take but one turn on each post. 

















































FALL TRACK WORK. 


229 


with projections on it to fit between the boards, 
making the spaces the correct width, is very handy 
when building a board fence. It makes a much 
neater face than when the spacing is done by 
guess, and saves measuring the spaces. 

If board fence is built with the boards meet¬ 
ing on the same side of the post, a batten should 
be nailed over the joint from the ground to the 
top of the post. 

For a permanent snow fence constructed with 
posts and boards, the posts may be set about 
fifteen feet four inches apart, and the ends of 
the boards can be nailed on opposite sides of 
each panel post. By this method there is a lar¬ 
ger amount of the board available for nailing 
when putting them up again after being torn, 
or blown off. It also saves the labor of sawing 
off the ends of the boards to make them meet 
square on the post. 

FENCE TABLES. 

9. The following tables will be useful to fore¬ 
men, when estimating the amount of fencing ma¬ 
terial required to build a post and board, or wire 
fence. 




THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


2j0 


TABLE 

SHOWING NUMBER OF POSTS REQUIRED TO BUILD 

ONE MILE OF FENCE. 


DISTANCE 

BETWEEN POSTS. 

NO. POSTS 

IN 1 & MILE. 

8 Feet. 

I l6 

12 “ 

I I I 

16 “ 

83 

20 

67 

32 “ 

42 


NO. POSTS 

IN 1/2 MILE. 

NO POSTS 

IN ONE MILE. 

33 i 

66l 

22 1 

441 

i'66 

331 

133 

265 

83 

166 


TABLE 

SHOWING THE NUMBER OF BOARDS REQUIRED TO 
BUILD J MILE, h MILE, OR ONE MILE OF FENCE 
AT A GIVEN NUMBER PER PANEL. 


NO. OF 

B’RDS PER PANEL 

QUARTER MILE. 

ONE-HALF MILE. 

ONE MILE 

4 Boards 

330 

660 

1320 

5 “ 

412 ^ 

825 

I65O 

6 “ 

495 

990 

1980 

7 “ 

5773 

1155 

2310 

8 

660 

1320 

2640 

9 “ 

742^ 

1485 

2970 

10 

825 

I65O 

33 oo 


One sixteen foot fence board contains 8 square 
feet of lumber. If a lumber estimate is required, 
multiply the number of boards wanted by eight, 
and the result is the nnmber of square feet* 






























FALL TRACK WORK. 


231 


EXAMPLE. 


4 boards per panel for J mile of track. 

330 

8 


2640 square ft. of lumber. 

WEIGHT OF NAILS. 


ID. 

No. of Nails. 

55, 10 penny common nails weigh one pound. 


45 > 

12 

4 4 

4 i 

4 4 

44 

. 4 4 

4 4 

30 , 

10 

4 4 

fence 

4 4 

4 4 

4 4 

4 4 

98 

T ? 

4 4 

4 4 

4 4 

4 4 

4 4 

4 4 


To ascertain the amount of nails wanted to 
build a given length of fence. Multiply the 
number of boards by six, and divide the result 
by the number of nails to the pound. 

EXAMPLE. 

For 14 mile board fence 330 Boards 4 per panel’. 

No of nails per board 6 

No. fence nails per pound 30 ) 1930 


66 lbs. 








232 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


WEIGHT OF FENCE WIRE. 

ii. The average weight of the wire now 
used by railroads is very close to one pound per 
rod for one wire, or about 6§ per ioo feet in 
length. When making estimates for wire fence, 
about io pounds to the mile of fence may be ad¬ 
ded for tying, splicing, etc. The weight of sta¬ 
ples varies according to the size used. 70 staples 
to the pound is the size most commonly used in 
building railroad fence. 


A day’s LABOR. 

12. The average day’s labor for one man at 
building post and board fence, where the boards 
meet on the post, six to a panel, and the work of 
setting the posts is included, is about eight to ten 
panels of fence complete. When the ends of 
the boards lap on opposite sides of the posts, 
thirteen to fifteen panels can be constructed by 
one man in a day. Building a post and wire 
fence, posts one rod apart, and four strands of 
wire, a man can construct about fifteen panels 
in a day; but a great deal depends on the condi¬ 
tions under which the work is performed, the 
quality of material used, and the quality or gen¬ 
eral excellence of the work when finished. The 
results obtained from a man’s labor, depend, first, 

his intelligence; next, on his. willingness to 
on 



FALL TRACK WORK. 


233 


work; and lastly, on his physical endurance. 
These three requisites should always be consider¬ 
ed by a foreman when employing men; and when 
possible he should always choose for his men, 
those who possess all of the qualities mentioned. 






















WINTER TRACK WORK. 


235 


WINTER TRACK WORK. 


CHAPTER VII. 

1, Winter Track Work —2, Shimming Track—3, Heaved 
Bridges and Culverts—4, Report Amount of Snow—5, 
Snow on Side Tracks—6, Snow in Cuts—7, Flanging 
Track—8, Opening Ditches and Culverts—9, Snow Walls 
-10, Snow Fences. 

i, Bucking Snow— 2, Two Locomotives—3, A Piece of 
Steam Hose—4, Length of Runs—5, Preparing Drifts. 


WINTER TRACK WORK. 


1 . There are many kinds of track work which 
the section men should do during the winter 
months on northwest roads, all of which are im¬ 
portant, and assist materially to lighten and ad¬ 
vance the work of the following spring and sum¬ 
mer. 

In the early part of the winter, when the cold 
weather has contracted the rails, its effect on the 
rail joints, bolts, and splices should be noticed by 
the foreman, and all loose bolts should be tight- 












THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 



ened up, and broken or cracked splices should be 
replaced by good ones. 

All open joints should be closed to the proper 
space, especially in the switches, to prevent the 
ends of the rails from becoming battered, and to 
save car wheels from breaking when passing over 
wide openings between the ends of the rails, as 
often happens in cold weather. All battered rails 
should be taken out of the track and replaced 
by good ones. Where the number is so great 
that they cannot all be removed in a short time, 
good repair rails and splices should be distributed 
ever) 7 mile or two along the section, so that when 
snow on the track, or bad weather interferes, 
broken rails or spikes can be replaced without 
any difficulty or unnecessary delay. As the win¬ 
ter advances, all good weather should be taken 
advantage of, and every spike above the rail or 
flange, or leaning from it, should be knocked 
down to place, and all of the track should be 
brought to a perfect gauge. 

Cleaning switches and yard tracks, and flang¬ 
ing out the main track after snow storms; shim¬ 
ming track, peeling the bark from ties, 
distributing ties for spring work, open¬ 
ing up ditches and culverts, etc., all add to 
the section foreman’s labor, and it requires a man 
of good judgment and energy to keep all of his 
work done properly at the right time and place. 

If a foreman keeps the loose spikes knocked 
down to place, and a good gauge on his track, 




WINTER TRACK WORK. 


2 37 


he will be surprised at the splendid line which he 
can have on his track the following summer, and 
trains will ride over it without that disagreeable 
side motion of the cars which knocks the line and 
surface out of the track, and is so fatal to the 
comfort of passengers. 


SHIMMING TRACK. 

i 

2 . Shimming track is a very important kind 
of winter work on northern railroads, and should 
be done with a view to keeping straight track 
level, smooth and safe, and the proper elevation 
of the outer rails on curves. 

Shims are placed under the track rails to raise 
up the low places to a smooth surface, and care 
should be taken to bring the rails to their proper 
place with the spirit level , where the track has 
heaved up. All shims over a quarter of an inch 
in thickness should have holes bored through 
them for the track spikes. This can best be 
done by boring the holes through a block of 
straight grained hard wood, six inches wide by 
ten inches long, and splitting off the shims as 
thick as needed. 

The top surfaces of the track ties should be 
adzed off level, especially where there is a groove 
made by the rail. This is necessary to give the 
r ails a solid foundation, preserve the correct sur¬ 
face, and prevent the shims from breaking. 





238 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


Shims should never be placed lengthways under 
the rails, because in that position they increase 
the height of the rail without widening the base. 
Section men cannot always see them, and they 
are liable to slip out of place, and by so doing 
weaken the support, and may cause a broken 
rail. 

Where the shims used are over one inch in 
thickness, spikes seven or eight inches long 
should be used to secure the rails, and where 
thicker shims are used, old rail splices should be 
spiked on the ends of the ties and against the 
outside of the rails for braces. These braces 
should be spiked on every second, third or fourth 
tie, in proportion to the height of the shims. 

To shim two or three inches high, plank of 
the proper thickness, sixteen feet long, should be 
cut in halves and spiked to the ties with boat 
spikes. For four inch shims put a one inch shim 
on top of a three inch plank, and for five inches 
use a bridge tie on top of the track ties. 

All high shimmed track should be watched 
closely, and thinner shims should be used to re¬ 
place the thick ones as fast as the heaved track 
settles in the spring. Shims should not be re¬ 
moved from track until all heaving has gone 
down, except where they put under the rails to 
level up low joints or other spots which were left 
over in the fall of the year. When the rail 
which has shims under it is higher than the track 
either way from it by the thickness of the shims, 



WINTER TRACK WORK. 


239 


you may remove them as the heaving has all gone 
out of the ground. Many foremen have spoiled 
a nice piece of track by removing the shims and 
tamping the ties as soon as the frost was out to 
the bottom of the ties. All good shims, shim 
spikes and braces, should be put away in the 
tool house every spring, and saved for use anoth¬ 
er year. And any planks which were used for 
shims in the manner here mentioned, may be put 
in service during the summer on highways or pri¬ 
vate wagon crossings. 

HEAVED BRIDGES AND CULVERTS. 

3. Pile bridges and pile culverts need careful 
watching in the winter season, and whenever the 
section foreman finds them heaved up out of sur¬ 
face or line, the bridge carpenters should be 
promptly notified. In some bridges and culverts 
the piles which heave up have to be cut off, and 
that part of the bridge or culvert must be lower¬ 
ed to correspond with the track on each side of 
it. Unlike the track in cuts, or on dumps, some 
piles which hsave up in the winter do not settle 
back to place again when the frost goes out of 
the ground, and shims have to be put under the 
caps or stringers, to keep the bridges up to sur¬ 
face during the summer. The greatest danger is 
to be apprehended where the piles in a bridge 
heave up irregularly, as when only one or two 
piles heave in a bent, or when the piles heave up 



240 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


n opposite corners of two different bents. This 
often happens where the piles are driven in deep 
water, as the ice which freezes to them lifts them 
up and should, therefore, always be cut away by 
the track men before there is danger of its doing 
so. 


REPORT AMOUNT OF SNOW. 


4. Section foremen should ascertain the con¬ 
dition of the track in their charge immediately 
after every snow storm (or wind storm) which 
would be liable to drift snow upon the track, and 
report to their roadmaster the depth and length 
of snow drifts in all the cuts on their sections. 
It is of the greatest importance that snow re¬ 
ports be sent promptly to the roadmaster by 
telegraph in order that the officers of the road 
may be able to make necessary preparations to 
clear the track. When there is no snow in the 
cuts on your section, report your section clear of 
snow. 


SNOW ON SIDE TRACKS. 

5. Section foremen should clear away the 
snow which has drifted upon side tracks as soon 
as possible after a storm, and the snow on 
switches and in frogs and guard rails, should be 
shoveled off and the track for the full length of 




WINTER TRACK WORK. 


241 


the switch lead and moving rails should be swept 
clean. This work should never be delayed be¬ 
cause all freight trains will need to do switching 
as soon as the road is open for traffic. 

SNOW IN CUTS. 


6. During the winter months when snow falls 
or is drifted into cuts to a depth of two or more 
feet, section foremen should take their men just 
as soon as possible after the storm and remove 
from the track sufficient snow at the ends of all 
drifts, to leave a clean flange and a clear face of 
snow, at least 18 inches deep, at both the ap¬ 
proach and run out end of the drift. It is a no¬ 
torious fact that a great many engines, when 
bucking snow, run off the track when coming 
out of, or running into a snow drift. This is 
generally caused by hard snow or ice in the 
flanges, as the engine, on being suddenly re¬ 
lieved of the weight of the snow, easily mounts 
the rail on a hard flange way, and runs off the 
track. 


FLANGING TRACK. 


7. Whenever the track becomes full of snow 
in the winter, and needs flanging out, section 
foremen should take their men and flange out 
the track at the tops of the heaviest grades first, 




242 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


and next, at all places on their sections where it 
is most difficult for an engine to pull a train. 
Always leave till the last those parts of your sec¬ 
tion which needs flanging least, such as high 
dumps, level track or sags between grades. 

OPENING UP DITCHES AND CULVERTS. 

8. On roads where snow lies on the ground 
during the winter months, section foremen 
should open up all ditches, culverts, and other 
waterways which pass along or under the track. 
Culverts, which are apt to be covered with snow 
in the winter, can easily be located when the 
thaw comes, if a long stake is driven close to 
the mouth of each cvlvert early in the fall of the 
year before any snow falls on the ground. 

In cuts that are full of sonw on each side of 
the track leaving only room enough for trains to 
pass through, foremen should make a ditch in 
the snow when it begins to melt in the spring, 
about six feet from the rails on each side of the 
track so that when the water begins to run it will 
not injure the track by running over it. 

SNOW WALLS. 

9. If you have any snow fences for protection 
along the cuts on your section, watch them closely 
and when ever you find a fence which has been 



WINTER TRACK WORK. 


243 


drifted full of snow or nearly so, build with blocks 
of snow, taken from the inside face of the drift, a 
wall four feet high along on the top of the high¬ 
est part of the drift. As long as the weather re¬ 
mains cool a wall built of blocks of snow will 
give as good protection to a cut as the same 
amount of ordinary snow fence would. Make 
snow walls strong and thick and increase their 
height on the worst cuts in proportion to the 

force of men that can be spared to do the work, 
and use double lines of snow wall fifty feet apart 

where they will be beneficial. 

SNOW FENCES. 

io. On the majority of northern railroads the 
amount of snow which falls upon the ground dur¬ 
ing the winter months is not so great as to re¬ 
quire the building of snow sheds, but to protect 
the cuts along the track from filling with snow, 
fences are built along the tops of the cuts at a 
sufficient distance from the track to catch the 
snow when it is drifted, and prevents it from be¬ 
ing blown into the cuts and blocking the track. 
The efficiency of a snow fence as a protection 
against snow depends on its strength, durability, 
height, how far it is from the track and the 
manner in which it is arranged along the top of 
the cuts. 

The writer has had some experience with snow 
and snow fences, and will here offer a few sug- 



244 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


gestions which may be useful to those interested. 

A snow fence, no matter how well made, or of 
what material, will rot and become useless in 
eight or ten years, at the latest. The yearly cost 
of repairing snow fences, the first cost, and the 
interest of the money invested, should all be con¬ 
sidered before putting up a snow fence on any 
railroad cut. And where the work of grading 
down a cut on each side of the track, so that it 
will not hold snow, can be done for an amount 
of money equal to the cost of the items above 
referred to, the grading of the cut should be 
done in preference to the building of a snow fence. 
In many sections of the northwest, a cut which is 
only two or three feet higher than the track rails 
can be graded from the right-of-way limits down 
to a level with the bottom of the track ties, and 
the dirt wasted on the fills near at hand for less 
than it would cost to maintain a snow fence on 
the same cut. 

Even when the cost of putting a cut into such 
a condition that it will not hold snow, is some¬ 
what greater than that of maintaining a good 
snow fence, the difference is in favor of the 
grading on account of the benefit the track de¬ 
rives from it. Snow fences are not needed at 
deep cuts, w r hich from their top slope back into a 
valley within a short distance from the side of 
the track; nor are snow fences much good as a 
protection where the ground slopes with an in¬ 
cline off from the track unless the fence is close 




WINTER TRACK WORK. 


245 


enough to carry the wind above the cut, or catch 
the snow before reaching the cut. Snow fence 
is not needed on cuts where heavy timber or un¬ 
derbrush grows close along each side of the track, 
the only snow in such cuts being that which falls 
directly upon the track and cannot be prevented. 
But where the ground is level for some distanc e 
from the track, or on a gently rolling prairie, cuts 
are liable to fill up with snow if not properly 
fenced Snow fences should be set up at such a 
distance from the track that the edge of the 
snow drift inside of them will nW reach within 
thirty feet of the track when.the xence is drifted 
full. Set the fence about eleven or twelve feet 
from the track for each foot in heighth of fence 
The heighth of the snow fence should regulate 
its distance from the track. If a snow fence is 
set too far from the track for its heighth, the 
wind, after passing over the top of the fence, soon 
strikes the ground on the inside of the fence, and 
gathers all the snow before it into the cut, and 
part of the snow which blows over the fence is 
also carried upon the track. 

A snow fence is seldom set up on each side of 
the track unless the road is so situated as to be 
exposed to storms from both directions. 

Storms from the northwest, north, and north¬ 
east are the most prevalent throughout the 
northwest, and as a general rule the north sides 
of railroads running east and west and the west 
sides on roads running north and south need the 







246 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


most protection from snow and need the most 
snow fence. Where two snow fences are put up 
on one side of the track, they should run parallel 
with each other, and there should be a space of 
at least 100 feet between them. Unless a very 
large quantity of snow is drifted the outside fence 
will hold it all. * ' • - 

Very good results have been attained by set¬ 
ting out the snow fence next to the track in the 
following manner. If the snow fence is of ordi¬ 
nary heighth, set it up seventy-five feet from the 
nearest track rail. Enough of the snow fence 
should run parallel with the track to reach the 
full length of the cut, no more. After this part 
of the fence is up, turn a wing on each end of 
it, approaching the track gradually until the ex¬ 
treme end of each wing entends 100 feet beyond 
the end of the cut, at a distance of about fifty or 
sixty feet from the track rail. 

When a cut ends abruptly on the beginning of 
a high fill, the wing on that end of the snow 
fence should be turned in towards the track be- 
fore the end of the cut is reached, or at least soon 
enough to protect the cut from a quartering 
storm. A snow fence built parallel with the 
track and without a wing on the end of it, is of 
very little use when a storm blows nearly along 
the track, as most of the snow on the inside of 
the fence is apt to be blown into the cut. New 
ties which are received for repair of track the fol¬ 
lowing spring, can be distibuted and used advan- 



WINTER TRACK WORK. 


247 


tageously to make a temporary snow fence on 
cuts where needed. The ties may be laid 
■along in line with their ends lapping each other, 
■about one foot slats or pieces of board can then 
be put across the ends of the ties where they lap 
•and a new line of ties laid along on top of them 
until the snow fence is of the proper heighth. 

“BUCKING" SNOW. ' 


1. Clearing the track of snow in the winter 
really belongs to the roadmaster's department, 
but as this book is intended to instruct young 
men who may fill that position at some time in 
the future, I cannot refrain from writing upon a 
subject which is of so much importance to rail¬ 
road companies who are troubled with snow on 
their roads to a greater or less extent every win¬ 
ter. 

\ 

No man is so well qualified to buck snow as he 
who has had some experience at it, and no man 
should be trusted with full charge of a snow plow 
-outfit unless it be known that he understands the 
best methods to be employed in opening up the 
road for traffic after a blockade. The man in 
•charge of a snow plow outfit should be informed 
•of the exact condition of the road, the depth of 
snow, the length of drifts, and the location of 
the same, as nearly as possible, before starting 
on the road, lie should have good, live, engines, 







248 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


and willing engineers. The plow itself should* 
like the engine and engineer, be the best that can 
be procured and of a pattern that could throw 

snow out of a cut eight or ten feet deep. Small 
plows, fenders, or other make-shifts which are 
only good' to clean the rails of light snow, or 
gouge a hole through a big cut should be left at 
home, and not taken out to buck snow. When 
there is a large quantity of it to be moved, the 
extra time and labor expended in shoveling and 
pulling such craft out of the snow would purchase 
. a good plow in one trip over.the road. Anoth¬ 
er engine and car, with a conductor, train crew 
and shoveling gang, should follow close behind 
the snow plow during the day time, and should 
be coupled in behind the plow when running af¬ 
ter dark. The second, engine should be used as a 
helper in striking deep snow, and to pull out the 
plow engine whenever it is stuck fast in a snow 
drift. All cars attached to the helper engine 
should be left behind on the clear track when 
both engines run together to buck a drift of 
snow The pilot should be removed from the 
engine which is used for a helper, so that a close 
coupling can be made when both engines are 
used together. The less slack there is between 
two engines coupled together the less liability is 
there of the hind engine pushing the front en¬ 
gine off the track. This is most liable to happen 
on a curve track, or where hard snow is encoun¬ 
tered. Never allow two engines to buck snow 






WINTER TRACK WORK. 


249 


with a long car coupling between them, or with a 
caboose or other car between the engines, as 
either arrangement endangers the lives of the 
men on the train and often results in a wreck. 
There is no necessity for using two engines be¬ 
hind the snow plow to buck snow which one en¬ 
gine can as well throw out. II the snow is not 
too hard, one good heavy engine and plow will 
clear the track of a snow drift three to five feet 
deep, and from five to eight hundred feet in 
length, at one run. * 

TWO LOCOMOTIVES. 

2. Two good locomotives coupled together 

behind the plow, if managed properly, will re¬ 
move any snow which it is advisable to buck. 
Snow drifts which are higher than the plow can¬ 
not be cleared from the track successfully with¬ 
out first shoveling the snow off the top of the 
drift, except when the drift is very short. Where 
the top of the snow drift is shoveled off,it should 
be opened wide enough to allow the plow to 
throw out of the cut the snow left in it. On 
roads where a Hanger is used and made to pull 

*On account of the invention of the rotary snow plows it 
lis not likely that snow plowing with a plow on the front of a 
locomotive will be done to any great extent in the future, 
especially where cuts are deep and long, and snow is hard. 
But when the snow is soft, and not too deep on the track, 
the old way of getting rid of it is still apt to be practiced. 





2^0 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


behind an engine on a train, it should be sent 
with the snow plow helper, and used to clean 

out the snow left between the track rails by the 
snow plow. When the snow is reported hard 
those in charge cf snow plow outfits should be 
very careful to have their engines and plow in 
as perfect condition as possible. They should 
run no risks; every snow drift should be examin¬ 
ed before running into it, and each end should 
be shoveled out enough to leave a clean flange¬ 
way and a face that would let the plow enter un¬ 
der the snow and keep it down upon the rails. 
The tendency of hard snow is to lift the plow up 
over the top of the drift and throw the engine off 
the track. Whenever the ends of the drifts are 
not faced as before mentioned, there is always 
great danger when entering o; leaving short, 
shallow drifts of hard snow, while on the con¬ 
trary, there is little or no danger in plowing soft 
deep snow at the greatest speed the engine can 
make. 

The engines with a snow plow outfit should 
always take on water and fuel to their full ca¬ 
pacity at every point on the road where a sup¬ 
ply can be obtained, no matter whether it is 
liable to be used or not. When it is at all prob¬ 
able that progress will be slow on account of 
hard or deep snow, a car loaded with coal should 
be taken along by the helper engine. If there 
is plenty of snow the supply of water can easily 
be made in the engine tanks by commencing to 



WINTER TRACK WORK. 


shovel snow into them before they are more than 
half empty. 


A PIECE OF STEAM KOSE. 

3. Every snow plow, engine, and helper en¬ 
gine should be supplied with a piece of steam 
hose which can be attached to the syphon cock 
and reach from it to the water hole in the back 
of the tank. With this hose an engine steaming 
well can quickly make a full tank of water from 
snow shoveled into the tank. It is also useful to 
thaw out the machinery, or clean the track rails 
of ice. 


LENGTH OF RUNS. 

4. In plowing snow the length of runs and 
the speed of the engine should always be in pro¬ 
portion to the depth and length of the snow 
drifts. If the drifts are deep and long, and likely 
to stick the plow, a good long run should be 
taken on the clear track, so that the plow engine 
may acquire its greatest speed before striking the 
drift. A good engineer who has had some prac¬ 
tice in bucking snow, will so handle his engine 
that very little shoveling by the men will be need¬ 
ed. 

It is not advisable to start out on the road 
with a snow plow outfit during a heavy storm, 





252 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


bat everything should be ready to make a start 
as soon as the storm is over. The snow plow 
should be attached to the best and heaviest en¬ 
gine in service on the division where it is used. 

The man in charge of a snow plow outfit 
should use his best judgment and have his wits 
about him at all times, that he may not be 
caught on the road with a dead engine, or be 
wrecked and block the road for other trains. It 
is much better for the company’s interests, and 
those of all others concerned when all accidents 
are avoided even should it take much longer time 
to open up the road. 

The engineer of the snow plow engine should 
sound the whistle frequently when approaching a 

cut, so that section men if working there, will be 

• 

warned in time to get out of the cut. When the 
snow plow is making repeated runs for a big snow 
drift, the signal to come ahead should never be 
given until all the snow shovelers have left the 
cut. It is very difficult for men to climb out of 
a cut where the snow is deep, and many acci¬ 
dents have occurred where approaching trains 
have failed to warn the men in time, or where 
the men have neglected to look out for the dan¬ 
ger until it was too late. If the men with the 
snow plow are always on the alert, and careful 
and conscientious in the discharge of their du¬ 
ties, the safety of all concerned will be assured 
and the work will progress rapidly. 



WINTER TRACK WORK. 


253 


PREPARING DRIFTS. . 

f 

5. When a snow drift is so long and deep that it 
may stick the snow plow twice, the better policy 
is to shovel out snow enough from the approach 
end of the drift to enable the snow plow to go 
through in the second run. In this way the lab¬ 
or of digging out the engine a second time may 
be avoided. 

All very hard snow should be broken up by 
the men and the crust thrown out before striking 
it with a snow plow. The shock felt when a 
snow plow strikes a hard drift is sometimes very 
great, and - often damages the machinery, or 
knocks the plow from the track. The force of 
concussion may be materially lessened by having 
the men clean a good flange way, and then shov¬ 
el out of the face and top of the drift enough 
snow to make a gradual incline of about one 
foot to the rod. Besides reducing the force of 
the shock the above method of preparing a hard 
snow drift enables the snowplow to open a much 
greater distance at a run. 






GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


255 


GENERA 


Li 



^rp 

1 

w 



CHAPTER VIII. 

1, Boarding accomodations—2, Discharges—3, Ride over on 
the engine—4, Following trains—5, Accidents—6, Go over 
the track—7, Raise up the wires—8, Extremes of temper¬ 
ature—9, Track jacks—10, The spirit level—11, Surface 
bent rails—12, Low joints—13, Examining track—14, 
Scarcity of repair rails—15, Changing battered rails— 16, 
Extra work—17,Train accidents—18,At wrecks—19,Water 
stations—20, Trespassers— 21, Protect fences—22, Rails of 
different heights—23, Expansion blocks—24, Switch 
stands—25, Absent from duty—26, Emergency rails—27, 
Extra men—28, A prompt reply—29, Get acquainted with 
your section—30, The proper way—31, Working new men 
—32, Clear water passages—33, Neat station grounds— 
34, Expansion on switches—35, Look over yards—36, Lips 
on steel switches—37, Bent switch rails—38, The moving 
rail switches—39, Battered switch rails—40, Ties under 
moving rails—41, Bent splices—42, Punch, or bore rails— 
43, Lining disconnected track—44, Ordering tools or ma¬ 
terial—45, Keep men’s time correct—46, Duplicate time 
books—47, Track material account—48, Printed forms— 
49,Section foremen’s report—50, Shipping track tools—51, 
Distance to set out danger signals—52, Keep signals al¬ 
ways with you—53, Time cards and rules—54, Note of 

. flags—55, Stop signals—56, Look out for signals—57, Ob¬ 
structing the track—58,Replacing signals—59,Injured sig- 























THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


2^6 


nals— 60,Complying with the rules—61, Location of whist ¬ 
ling posts and signs—62, Trains disrespect of signals—63, 
Look out for trains—64, Always be prepared—65, Hand 
cars and tool house—66, Telegraph office reports—67, Re¬ 
moving hand cars from crossings—68, Throwing switches 
*—69, Leaving hand cars on track—70, Loaning tools to 
others—71, Different varieties of ties—72, Care of tools— 
73, Hand cars, etc.—74, Shovels—75, Cold chisels—76, 
Use of claw bars—-77, Lining bars—78, Rail punches—79, 
The place for tools—80, Cutting steel—81, The ballast in 
yards—82, Execute promptly—83, Protect against fire— 
84, The curving hook—85, Report stock killed—86, Dam¬ 
aged by fire—87,Be careful of material— 88, Pick up scat¬ 
tered material—89, Do first what needs to be done—90, 
How to do work—91, Foremen on duty—92, Adopt the 
best method. 

BOARDING ACCOMMODATIONS. 


1. Track foremen should always see about 
securing boarding accommodations for the men 
working under them. Do not make a favorite 
of any particular house in a town, but select the 
hotel which will give the best accommodations 
the cheapest. 

The wages of track, laborers as a general rule 
are low, and very few of these men can pay 
their board in advance. For this reason fore¬ 
men should see that board bills presented by ho¬ 
tel keepers against an\ r of their men are proper¬ 
ly signed, corrected, and sent into headquarters 
promptly at the end of every working month, 
and when a man is discharged, if he is in debt 
for board, the amount of his bill should be sent 
in with his check to the superintendent to be de- 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


257 


ducted therefrom. By paying particular atten¬ 
tion to the foregoing instructions, track foremen 
will always be able to more readily secure men 
when wanted. The hotel men will not refuse to 
keep them, and you will save yourself and the 
company’s officers a great deal of annoyance and 
useless correspondence. Never keep at work for 
you a dead beat or an habitual drunkard, and 
you will materially assist in bettering the condi¬ 
tion and reputation of men employed in the 
track service. 


discharges. 

2. Upon the day on which a man is dis¬ 
charged the foreman should make out his time 
in full on the time book, and write opposite his 
name on the time book, “discharged,” or the let¬ 
ters C. G., which means certificate of time 
given. 

The foreman should also till out a discharge 
check, using the regular blank form for that pur¬ 
pose. The man’s name should ho 'written in full 
on the discharge check and spelled in the same 
way as on the time book. His occupation, num¬ 
ber of days worked, and amount due him should 
also correspond with the same on the time book. 
The discharge check should be signed by the 
foreman and forwarded to the roadmaster for ap¬ 
proval. A board bill should also accompany 
the discharge check whenever there is any de- 



258 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


duction to be made from a man's wages for that 
purpose. 

Foreman should not discharge any of their 
men without sufficient cause , except when they 
have received an order to reduce their force, nor 
should a foreman keep any more men than the 
regular force allowed him, without orders from 
the roadmaster. 


RIDE OVER YOUR SECTION ON THE ENGINE. 


3. Section foreman should take an occasion¬ 
al ride over their section either on the engine or 
on the back platform of the rear coach or ca¬ 
boose of a train; and while riding over the track 
they should not make a pleasure trip of it, mere¬ 
ly, but should watch closely how the cars ride, 
and note all the worst places in their section*, and 
note what causes these places to affect the 
smooth running of the train. A train running at 
the speed of 45 miles per hour does not ride as 
smoothly as a train which only travels 20 miles 
per hour on the same track, because the cars 
which travel the slowest have more time to get 
righted after the wheels meet with a place out of 
line, level, gauge, or surface, while the fast train 
may meet with, and pass several of these slight 
obstructions within a second of time, thus having 
no time to regain its balance. When a train 
runs along smoothly for a distance and suddenly 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


259 


swings to one side, if it be on a straight track, that 
place is either low on that side, or is badly out 
of line or gauge. If the train be on a curve, and 
the car swings heavily toward the higher rail, 
there is not enough elevation in the curve at that 
point. If the car swings toward the inside rail 
of the curve, there is too much elevation at the 
outer rail at that place. A low joint on the in¬ 
side rail will cause the train to swing to that side, 
and the striking of the wheel flange against joints 
that are hooked in out of line on the outer rail 
will also throw the car toward the inner rail. A 
foreman can soon become expert in distinguish- 
ing the slight difference in the motion of the car 
as it swings to either side of the track, and tell 
the cause by examining the bad places in the 
track soon after riding over it on the train. 


FOLLOWING TRAINS. 


4. Track foremen should not, at any time, se¬ 
cure their hand or push cars behind a movin 
train to save the labor of pumping or pushin 
them. Many serious accidents have happened 
from this cause. If a train should slacken speed, 
or suddenly stop, with a hand car attached, it 
would be hard to prevent the car from going un¬ 
der the coach or caboose, and the men on the car 
might be injured or killed. 


Grq OfQ 



26 o 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ACCIDENTS. 

5. All personal injuries to men working in 
track service should be reported on the proper 
blank form by the foreman to the roadmaster, 
and all accidents resulting in damage to the rail¬ 
road company’s property should also be prompt¬ 
ly reported to the roadmaster. When there are 
no suitable blank forms a written report should 
be made. 


GO OVER TRACK. 


6. Section foremen should always in very 
stormy weather go over their sections and exam¬ 
ine all adverts, bridges and other places liable to 
wash , and report condition of track to roadmas¬ 
ter. In going over their section, track foremen 
should be very thorough in their examination of 
everything in their charge. See that the telegraph 
lines are in good order; if they arenot, repair them 
where you can., and report to train dispatcher, or 
roadmaster, any defects that may need the ser¬ 
vice of the telegraph line repairer. 

Foremen should also notice the condition of 
all snow or right of way fences, especially the 
latter, and repair all breaks in them as soon as 
found. Gates left open by farmers should be 
closed and secured. Unreliable men , or those ig~ 






GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


261 

no rant of their duties, should, never he detailed to 
patrol the trach . 


RAISE UP THE WIRES. 


7. When telegraph wires are found down af¬ 
ter a storm, section foremen should hang them 
high enough on the poles to insure their working 
properly, and prevent cattle or teams crossing 
the track from running against them. 

EXTREMES OF TEMPERATURE. 

8. Whenever the temperature changes sud¬ 
denly there is always danger whether the changes 
be to extreme heat or extreme cold. Section 
foremen should be very particular to go over and 
examine all the track on their sections to discov¬ 
er places where track has been kinked and thrown 
out of line by the heat, or splices broken and 
rails pulled apart by the extreme cold. Fore¬ 
men should remember that accidents of the kind 
mentioned are liable to happen at any point on 
the road, even where the rails seem to have the 
proper allowance for expansion, because the 
change of temperature may come on quickly. 
Places where the ballast is light, or where the 
track is not filled in between the ties, are the 
most liable to be affected. 






262 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


TRACK JACKS. 

9. Every section foreman should have a 
track jack along with his other track tools, and 
he should always carry it with him on the hand 
car, and have it ready to use whenever it is nec¬ 
essary to raise track. 

There are few things that look more ridiculous, 
than three or four men making futile efforts to 
raise a rail of track, with along bar or track lev¬ 
er, and a block of wood which is either too high 
or too low. The ingenuity or ignorance of the 
whole gang is displayed a score of times during 
the day, whenever the block will not do to raise 
the track to the proper height, and valuable time 
is lost in trying to find a stone, a chunk of wood, 
or a spike to increase the leverage, and which is 
seldom or never, thought of until the moment it 
is wanted. Sometimes the spikes are pulled out 
of one or two ties in every rail length, and the 
track is raised from the top of the ties. This 
way also causes a considerable loss of time, pull¬ 
ing the spikes and respiking the ties, besides the 
injury done the ties, when the old spike holes 
are left open to rot the wood. Raising track 
with a lever, pulls the rails out of line much more 
than raising it with a jack, and makes it more 
difficult to get back to place, often loosening the 
spikes where the ballast is heavy, and the track 
is laid with soft ties. 

A good track jack is one of the best and most 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


263 


economical tools that can be used on a railroad. 

In order to avoid accidents when track is be¬ 
ing raised, the track jack should be set on the 
outside of the rails. In this position the pilot of 
an engine, if it should strike the jack, will knock 
it clear from the rails. But there is no necessity 
of using a track jack immediately ahead of the 
passage of trains, or when they are due at that 
point, and the men can be employed at other 
work for the time. A track jack placed, inside 
the rails which could not be removed in time, 
caused the derailment of a passenger train on 
the old colony railroad and ten persons were 
killed. 


THE SPIRIT LEVEL. 

10. Foremen should never go out on their 
sections to pick up track or surface it without 
taking the spirit level with them. It should be 
used continually, especially on track which was 
never ballasted, or which was surfaced hurriedly 
without using a level. Never listen to ignorant 
or conceited track foremen, who will tell you 
that they can put up as good track without using 
the track level. It is impossible. If you have 
surfaced a piece of track to a perfect level, then 
you can sight the depressions in the surface with¬ 
out using the spirit level, when going over it a 
second time, if the track has not become rough. 

It is the rule more than the exception, that 





264 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


where a track is newly laid and ballasted with 
dirt, the surfacing is poorly done, and the spirit 
level seldom or never used. 

Section foremen in charge of new track laid 
on dirt should make it their business to improve 
the line and surface as fast as possible with the 
force allowed them, before the track settles, or 
the dirt becomes a solid mass. While the ties 
and iron are new is the time to make a good 
track. 


SURFACE BENT RAILS. 

11. In wet cuts, or other - low places, the 
track often becomes very rough, and the ties sink 
into the mud in places. The rails then, if of 
light weight, become more or less surface bent 
before the track can be raised up, or repaired 
properly. If the surface bent rails cannot be re¬ 
placed by good rails before the track is ballasted 
up they are apt to cause the section foreman 
much trouble in trying to make them remain in 
true surface, if he does not understand how to 
straighten them. This can best be done by the 
following method: If, for instance, a rail bows 
up at the quarter or the center, make the ties 
solid at each end of the bent place, then remove 
enough material from under the ties, where the 
rail is bent, so that the weight of an engine 
passing over the rail will bend the bowed place, 
just as much below level, as it is then above. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


265 


After a train goes over you will generally find 
the rail has resumed its proper shape all right. 
If the bend in the rail is downward, hang the 
center of the bent place upon one or more solid 
ties, according to the length of the bend, and al¬ 
low the balance of the track under the rail to 
remain as it was. Joints which have been allowed 
to remain low for some time, often cause the rail 
to become surface bent in the short quarter, and 
they are very difficult to keep up ever after, un¬ 
less the kink is taken out of the rail. 

A loose joint tie, in gravel or sand ballast, will 
soon pump out enough gravel to cause the rail 
to bend a short distance from the end, unless it 
is noticed by the track foreman, and taken care 
of at once. When the track foreman wishes to 
straighten any surface bent rails, he should al¬ 
ways signal the first train, and have it run slowly, 
because there is danger of the rails breaking 
where they are not fully supported. Surface 
bent rails, which are so bad that they cannot be 
straightened while in the track, may be taken 
out and fixed with the curving hook and lever. 

LOW JOINTS. 

12. When picking up low joints in gravel or 
stone ballasted track, particularly where the de¬ 
pressions are only slight, track foremen should 
always use tamping bars, or tamping picks, ac¬ 
cording to the nature of the ballast, to tamp up 



266 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


the track ties to the proper surface level. 

There are many things other than a weak 
foundation which make low joints in track. 
Loose bolts in the joint fastenings make low 
joints, because they allow the joints to bend 
down under the weight of the engine and cars. 
Bad gauge and line make low joints, because the 
cars, when trains run fast, are thrown heavily 
from one side of the track to the opposite, and 
the joint being the weakest point is liable to be 
affected the most. A wide space between the 
ends of the track rail also make low r joints, and 
assists the car wheels to batter the ends of the 
rails. 

When rails are laid on soft wood ties, or when 
the ties, have commenced to decav, you will gen- 
erallv find that a \ow r joint is wide in the gauge 
between the rails. Make low joints a scarce ar¬ 
ticle on your seetion of track, and you will quick¬ 
ly have a good track, and a good reputation a ; a 
track foreman. 


EXAMINING TRACK. 

13. When the track rails on a section become 
badly worn, and need to be repaired often, or 
when the ground is frozen solid in winter, section 
foremen should go over their sections daily, and 
examine the track thoroughly for broken or 
cracked rails, removing from track such rails, 
and replacing with good ones. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


267 • 

It is the duty of foremen never to deviate 
from this rule unless a regular track walker is 
employed for this purpose, or when they have 
orders from the roadmaster to the contrary. 

The section foreman is responsible.for the con¬ 
dition of the track in his charge, and he should 
do everything in his power to contribute to the 
safety of passengers and trains passing over it. 
Report all broken rails to the roadmaster as soon 
as found, giving brand, weight, age, etc. 

SCARCITY OF REPAIR RAILS. 

14. When repair rails are'scarce, and a fore¬ 
man cannot procure enough to exchange for 
damaged rails in his main track, he can with on¬ 
ly a couple of extra rails keep his track perfect¬ 
ly safe by commencing in time to bring into sta¬ 
tion the worst rails on the main track. 

Take the extra rails out on the section, if goc d 
and of the proper length, exchange them for 
two battered rails, bring the two battered rails 
into the station and put them in the yard, or in 
track some place near the station, and get two 
more good rails. T hese you take out on section 
as before, and exchange for battered rails. In 
this way a foreman may exchange four or five 
carloads of rails, or about one mile of iron or 
steel, until he receives a supply of repair rails. 

Battered rails are safer within half a mile of a 
station at the track foreman’s headquarters, than 



268 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


out cn his section, because trains run slower 
there. Battered rails are less liable to break 
near the station. They are also much easier 
watched, and taken care of. When repair rails 
are received the battered rails can all be removed 
at once. 


CHANGING BATTERED RAILS. 

15. The best method for changing rails which 
have become unfit for use on the main track, 
when the rails furnished for repair are of a differ¬ 
ent length from those in the main track, is as 
follows. 

Put in track near the station a string of repair 
rails, and take out rails of a proper length to 
change the battered ones out on the section. In 
order to do this right, and save unnecessary ex¬ 
pense and labor, always try to have the number 
of repair rails you put in track replace a greater 
or less number of rails of a different length with¬ 
out any cutting. If you have not the right 
number of rails without cutting one, use a num¬ 
ber of rails that will give the least waste. 

EXAMPLE. 

15, 26 foot rails equal 390 feet. 

13, 30 foot rails equal 390 feet. 

OR 

7, 30 foot rails equal 210 feet. 

8, 26 foot rails equal 208 feet. 

As will be seen in the above example, there are 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


269 


only two feet to be cut from the last 30 foot rail 
of the 7 to replace 8, 26 foot rails, and for this 
waste a foreman should select (if he has it) a 
rail battered on the end, that will give the re¬ 
quired 28 feet of good rail. 

EXTRA WORK. 

16. It is customary on most railroads to call 
upon the trackmen to do extra work occasionally, 
such as assisting the telegraph line repairer, the 
bridge carpenters, pump repairers, etc., when¬ 
ever these gangs cannot well perform the work 
alone, or when a sufficient force of men cannot 
be procured to do the necessary work. 

Track foremen should not assist with their 
men at any kind of extra work without orders 
from the roadmaster. When such orders are 
received the track foreman should only give the 
amount of help required, using all of his men or 
only part, as is necessary. Never employ all of 
your force when a less number of men could do 
the work as well, unless your orders require it. 
Charge accurately on the work journal, and to 
the department to which it belongs, all extra 
work performed by your men during the month. 
Whenever you do any extra work, for which 
there is no printed heading on the work journal, 
put down the time in some column which you 
are likely not to have any occasion to use for the 
work specified in it, and state, in writing in the 




2/0 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


same column where you put the time, what the 
labor was. 


TRAIN ACCIDENTS, ETC. 

17. In case of an accident to a train, the sec- 

• 

tion foreman who is called should take his men 
and tools and go to the place, no matter whether 
it is on his section or not, and give all the assist¬ 
ance possible. Foremen should obey the con¬ 
ductor of the train, and work under his instruc¬ 
tions until the arrival of the roadmaster, or until 
they receive other orders. Section foremen 
should not wait for orders from their roadmaster 
to do any extra work which they know to be ab¬ 
solutely necessary, but should do the work at 
once, and remain out with their men until every¬ 
thing is safe. If a foreman is notified bv train 

o J 

men or others of something wrong on a section 
adjoining his own, such as a broken rail, a fire 
along the right of way, or the telegraph wires 
broken or down, he should make all possible 
speed to get to the place of danger 'without ques¬ 
tioning his right to go, because it may not be 
possible to notify the proper foreman, and any 
delay may cause the company considerable loss. 


AT WRECKS. 

18. Whenever there is a wreck on the road* 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


271 


the foreman on whose section the accident hap¬ 
pened, should keep an accurate account of the 
labor and material expended in repairing the 
damage done to the track. This account, together 
with the one of the damage done to rails, ties, 
spikes bolts, or to the grade, should be put in 
the form of a report, and promptly sent to the 
roadmaster immediately after the track is re¬ 
paired. Time of men working at a wreck should 
be charged to that account on the work journal. 

WATER STATIONS. 

19. At all the water stations the section fore¬ 
man should note the amount of water in tanks 
when passing, and where wind engines do the 
pumping, they should be oiled often, and any de¬ 
fects in them or the pumps should be repaired, 
if possible, or reported by telegraph to the per¬ 
son in charge of such work. Section foremen 
and their men should pump water into the tanks 
whenever the wind engine fails to supply enough 
for trains. When it is necessary to pump by 
hand, foremen should commence to pump before 
there is any danger of the supply in the tank be¬ 
ing exhausted. Where steam pumps are to furn¬ 
ish the water for trains, section foremen should 
assist the man in charge to do any necessary re¬ 
pairing which he can not do alone. Section 
foremen should always be ready and willing to 
get out their men day or night , to do work 





2 7 2 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


where their services would be valuable to the 
company. 


TRESPASSERS. 

20. Foremen should see that no person is al¬ 
lowed to erect dwellings, stables, or other build¬ 
ings within the limits of the railroad company's 
right of way, or in any other manner trespass on 
the company's property, without permission from 
the roadmaster or superintendent. 

PROTECT FENCES. 

21. When burning grass, weeds, or other ma¬ 
terial along the right of way, foremen should be 
very careful and protect the fence from fire. 
Never go awaj r from a place where you have 
been burning rubbish, and leave any fire behind 
you, no matter how small the fire, or how harm¬ 
less it may appear. It is always dangerous until 
extinguished. If part of a fence should acci¬ 
dentally be burned, or destroyed from any cause, 
the damage should be reported at once to the 
roadmaster, giving a correct list of the property 
destroyed, and location of the same, so that ma- 
terial to repair the damage can be sent there 
promptly. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


273 


RAILS OF DIFFERENT HEIGHT. 


22. All rails of different heights, where they 
meet at a joint, should be connected with a step 
splice, and an iron shim should be put under the 
base of the low rail to give an equal bearing 
with the high rail, The iron shim should have 
slots punched in the sides so that spikes can be 
driven in to keep it secured in place. 

EXPANSION BLOCKS. 

23. When it is necessary to use short pieces 
of rail, called expansion blocks, to close up an 
open joint between the ends of two rails, the 
holes in one end of the splices should be length¬ 
ened so that the joint can be full bolted and 
properly secured. The expansion block in a 
joint should always rest on the center of a sound 
tie. 


SWITCH STANDS. 

24. All switch stand targets should show 
blind, when locked on the main track, also on 
all tracks running parallel to the main track, 
when connected at both ends. The switch tar¬ 
get should show the red signal for an open 
switch when thrown for a spur track, and the 
switch should be thrown back to position on the 





274 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


through track, and kept locked, except when the 
spur track is in use. 


ABSENT FROM DUTY. 


25. Track foremen should never be absent from 
duty, unless by permission from their roadmaster, 
except in case of sickness or from some other 
unavoidable cause, and in such cases the road- 
master should be notified immediately. 

EMERGENCY RAILS. 

26. When it is possible to avoid it, I would 
recommend that track foremen leave neither 
track tools nor material of any kind out along 
their sections over night. But on roads where 
snow troubles in the winter time, and section 
foremen have long sections, it is a good policy 
to have good repair rails, with splices bolted to 
them, placed at convenient distances, one or two 
miles apart, along the section, where they can be 
easily reached. These rails can be used in case 
of an emergency to replace a broken rail in 
the track, and the splices will also be handy to 
replace broken ones, without the necessity of 
going perhaps several miles through snow drifts, 
back to the station, for the material wanted. To 
prevent the rails or splices from being covered 
with snow, they should be secured on posts set 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


275 


with their top two or three feet above the sur¬ 
face of the ground. 

The condition of the rails as to wear should 

decide the number of emergency rails to be dis¬ 
tributed along the track. Of course, where the 
rails in the track are badly worn, and broken 
rails are common, the number of emergency rails 
should be more numerous than where the track 
is newly laid, and the rails not much worn. 

EXTRA MEN. 

27. When you are about to have an extra 
force of men, larger than you have been used to 
working, take a little time to plan how you will 
distribute the men to accomplish the most good. 
Organization is half the work. 

A PROMPT REPLY. 


28. Whenever you receive a message from 
your roadmaster, which requires an answer, 
don’t wait or delay, but answer it promptly and 
correctly. 


GET ACQUAINTED WITH YOUR SECTION. 

29. Every section foreman, as soon as he has 
been appointed to take charge ‘of a section, 
should make himself thoroughly acquainted with 




276 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


every part of the piece of road in his charge. 
Get the numbers of all the bridges and culverts 
on your section, and the distance from the sta¬ 
tion north, south, east or west. Get the brand 
of iron or steel and if it is of different makes get 
the amount of each, and find when it was laid, 
also the length and kind ■ of iron in your side 
tracks, number of panels of snow fence on your 
section, height of bridges from the ground, 
number of public crossings, signs, etc. Keep 
this account where it will be handy to refer to at 
any time, and keep it corrected from time to 
time. By doing this you will be able to answer 
any questions asked by officials of the road 
about any part of your section, and in case of a 
wreck or washout, you will be able to locate the 
place at a moments notice, and give a close esti¬ 
mate of the kind and amount of material neces¬ 
sary for repairs, in case of damage to track. 

THE PROPER WAY. 

30. Find out from your roadmaster the cor¬ 
rect way of keeping your time, and filling out 
any other monthly reports that you have to send 
in to his office, and make them out as directed 
by him. You may have a printed form of some 
kind to fill out. Answer what is asked in the 
headings on form, but never omit or add any¬ 
thing. 



2 77 


GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


WORKING NEW MEN. 

31. If it is necessary to work new men on 
your section, who have never worked on track 
before, do not lose your patience if they are a lit¬ 
tle awkward in doing the work. If you can do so, 
pair these men with older hands. Take a little 
trouble to show them how you want the work 
done, in a manner that will give them confidence, 
and in most cases you will accomplish more good 
than by using the blow-and-bluster method so 
common with some foremen. Remember you 
needed instructions once yourself. 

CLEAR WATER PASSAGES. 

32. No old vegetable matter, grass, etc., 
should ever be allowed to accumulate under 
bridges, or near the mouth of culverts, or any 
other material that would be liable to catch fire 
easily, or stop the passage of water. 

NEAT STATION GROUNDS. 

33. Section foremen should keep the station 
grounds clean and neat, and all track material 
should be piled up in several lots. There should 
be no disorder, there should be a place for every¬ 
thing, and everything in its place. All stray 
links and coupling pins that are fit to use, should 





278 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


be picked up, and left where they will be handy 
for train men when wanted. All of the station 
grounds not occupied by tracks, or covered with 
ballast, should be allowed to grow up in tame 
grasses. Such plots should be kept nicely 
trimmed around the sides and ends, with a view 
to having them of a regular form, and they 
should be lined parallel with adjoining tracks. 
No rubbish of any kind should ever be allowed 
to accumulate upon tracks, or on the ground 
close to buildings. It should be taken away and 
dumped into places which need filling. Section 
foremen should not spend too much time work¬ 
ing around the station, but do what work is re¬ 
quired there when other track work is not press¬ 
ing, or when the weather or extra jobs interfere, 
and take up so much of the day that it would 
not pay to go out on the section. 

EXPANSION AT SWITCHES. 

34. Many section foremen, where stub 
switches are used, cut the ends off the moving 
rails, sometimes spending considerable time on a 
hot day trying to cut the end of a rail off with¬ 
out taking up the rail.' Others do a little better 
and take off the cross rods to cut the rail. 

Now, instead of interfering with the moving- 
rails, it is a much better way to cut the next two 
rails back of. them, and control expansion there. 
It will save lots of time and hard labor on a hot 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


279 


day, when it is necessary to do such work. Cut 
off the ends of the rails mentioned from the first 
bolt hole. This will give a space of about three 
inches for expansion. Bore a new hole in the 
1 ails which were cut, put on the joint fastenings 
leaving an opening at the head chair joint.of not 
more than half an inch, then loosen the bolts on 
three or four joints further back, and open them 
sufficiently to take up all of the space except 
what is needed in the head chair joint for the 
rails to move easily. The open joints back of 
the moving rails can be closed whenever the 
switch becomes tight, and in most cases the one 
cutting of rails at a switch will do for a whole 
season. 


LOOK OVER YARD. 

35. Yard track foremen should look over the 
whole' yard every morning, and see that all 
switches are all right, and nothing is wrong, be¬ 
fore going to work for the day at some particular 

place. 


LIPS ON STUB SWITCHES. 

36. On a road where stub switches are used, 
a foreman should see that no lips form where 
the moving and lead rails meet; and that the 
track lines are true, no matter which way the 





28 o 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


switch is turned. To guard against having lips 
on the rails of stub switches where they meet in 
the head chair, the head rods on the ends of 
moving rails should fit as tight as they can ha 
driven on. No lost motion should ever be al¬ 
lowed to get in any switch connections. Switch 
stands should be hotted to the head block. 

BENT SWITCH RAILS. 

37. Brakemen, when in a hurry, often pull 
the switch lever over before the trucks of the 
last car of a train are off the moving rails of a 
switch. This makes a kink or bends the rails 
Gut of line, besides, it often forms a lip at the 
joint in the head chair. The quickest way to 
tix a pair of moving rails, that have become bent 
as above stated, is to take out one of the rails 
and turn it end for end. This makes the bow 
pull in opposite directions, and in most cases will 
keep a switch all right until it can be repaired, 
or new rails put in. When the bend in moving- 
rails is towards the side of track from which 
switch turns off, drive a stake at the ends of a 
couple of ties opposite the bent place in the 
rails, and drive spikes in these ties outside the 
bend part of rails to keep them in line. This 
will do temporarily when you have not the time 
to straighten the rails. 






GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


281 


THE MOVING RAILS OF STUB SWITCHES. 

38. The moving rails of stub switches should 
never be cut except when battered. The best 
method of keeping the moving rails in good con’ 
dition is to have them of the correct length, and 
to keep the joints in the head chairs just open 
enough so that the switch can be thrown easily 
in warm weather. When the rails begin to con¬ 
tract in cold weather, a pair of extension splices 
can be put on the connected ends of the moving 
rails, which will admit of expansion blocks of 
the proper size being put between the rails to fill 
up the space left by contraction. Short pieces 
of splices bolted on the ends of the moving rails, 
where they come into the head chairs, will as¬ 
sist in making the ends of the rails wear much 
longer without becoming battered, they should 
also be on the lead and main track rails where 
they meet the moving rails on the head chair. 

BATTERED SWITCH RAILS. 

39. Never take out one rail in a stub switch. 
When it becomes badly battered on the end, al¬ 
ways take out at the same time the rails which 
meet it in the head chair. A good rail put in, 
and meeting a battered one, will soon be as bad 
as the battered one. 





2§2 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


TIES UNDER MOVING RAILS. 

40. The ties under the moving rails should 
be oak, sawed ties if possible, and as close to¬ 
gether as they can well be tamped. None 
should be farther apart than 8 inches, and where 
a switch rod comes the ties should be closed up 
to within two and a half or three inches of each 
other. This will keep switch rods in place. 
The object in having the ties close together un¬ 
der the moving rails is to 1 eep the rails up to 
surface, and the cross rods square across the 
track in place; and in case <d the trucks of a car 
or engine getting off the tr i:k at a switch, which 
happens oftener there than at any other place on 
a railroad, the ties being cl >se together will sup¬ 
port the wheels from sinking between them, and 
car or engine can more easily and quickly be put 
back on the track without danger of bending the 
tie rods. 


BENT SPLICES. 

41 When a foreman receives old iron or steel 
for repairs he should always examine the splices, 
especially angle bar splices, and if they are bent 
in the center he should not use them again with¬ 
out straightening them. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 



PUNCH OR BORE THE RAILS. 

4?. When cutting old iron or steel for repairs, 
always punch or bore holes for two bolts in the 
cut ends of the rails. Do not put on splices with 
bolts only in one end, or with less than the full 
number used in a joint. 

LINING DISCONNECTED TRACK. 

43. Foremen when lining track that has been 
washed out, or that has been disconnected at one 
end, should never commence lining from the dis¬ 
connected end. Always commence to lme track 
from the end that is connected., and nearest to 
line, and work towards the end that is discon¬ 
nected, and when you have moved it once, be¬ 
gin to line as before. 

The writer has on several occasions seen fore¬ 
men with a large gang of men spend several 
hours of valuable time at a washout, in a fruit¬ 
less attempt to bring into line the tail end of a 
piece of track, and when the men could not 
throw it, cut it into rail lengths and carry it into 
place. This could have been avoided it track 
had been lined in the way stated above. 




284 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


' ORDERING TOOLS OR MATERIAL. 

44. Track foremen, when ordering tools or 
material for use on the track m their charge, 
should not make requisition for more than the 
amount necessary of either kind. A surplus of 
tools or track material on hand, which there is 
no prospect of putting in service soon, represents 
their value in cash lying idle or going to waste. 

KEEP men's TIME CORRECTLY. 

45. It is a notable fact that the best track 
foremen keep the time of their men and other ac¬ 
counts correctly, and.do everything, as the say¬ 
ing goes, “in ship shape," while the reverse can 
only be said of foremen who are careless or slov¬ 
enly. The want of an education is only an 
excuse, and a foreman, by devoting a little of his 
time evenings to study, can soon write a good 
hand, and learn enough of figures to do all that 
is required of him while in the position of track 
foreman. 


DUPLICATE TIME BOOKS. 

46. All track foremen should carry with them 
a duplicate time book, and note on the same any 
loss of time, or time earned by any of the men 
working under them. Keep a journal of the 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


285 


work performed by them each day, always charg¬ 
ing the proper number of days labor done by 
them at each seperate kind of work. This rec¬ 
ord of time and work performed should be trans¬ 
ferred at the end of each day to the regular time 
book and journal of work, which is sent to head¬ 
quarters at the end of each month. 

By following above instructions, a foreman will 
avoid making any mistakes, and will also be able 
to refer back to the time of his men, the kind of • 
work done, and date of same, whenever called 
upon for information by his superior officers. 

TRACK MATERIAL ACCOUNT. 

47. When foremen receive track material of 
anv kind, and it is loaded on cars or unloaded 
from cars by them, they should check over every¬ 
thing carefully and count the pieces, number of 
rails, ties, etc.; also note the brand or quality of 
the same, and take the number of the car. Keep 
this with your other accounts, no matter whether 
you have orders to do so or not, as you may be 
asked to give information on the subject a month 

later. 


PRINTED FORMS. 


48. Track foremen should read and thorough¬ 
ly understand the printed instructions on all 
blank forms which the railroad company requires 



286 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


them to use, when making their reports. Many 
foremen are too careless in this matter, often 
omitting to put down the answers to printed 
questions which it is almost impossible for them 
to miss seeing when filling out the form. Occa- 
sionly a foreman will put on his work journal the 
number of ties received during the month, and 
at the same time fail to give the number of 
ties used during the month, or the number on 
hand; while the latter questions are there on the 
journal, as well as the question, how many ties 
received. Then the roadmaster must write him 
a letter a second time and instruct him what he 
should do and wait for an answer. It is just 
likely that the .foreman spoken of above will be 
changing a rail in a side track, or doing some 
other kind of work, which could be put off or 
delayed without danger, for a week or two, when 
at that time he should have been examining his 
track after a heavy storm. 

He has carried a time card in his pocket for ' 
months perhaps, and never informed himself 
that there was a rule on that time card which re¬ 
quired himself and men to be out and examine 
the track on his section in stormy \weather. Fore¬ 
men of the kind mentioned do not hold a posi¬ 
tion long under any roadmaster, because they are 
not reliable, they need to be watched too closely 
and instructed too often in their duties. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


287 


SECTION FOREMAN'S REPORTS. 

49. In order to facilitate the making out of 
weekly or monthly reports, where there are 
no blank forms furnished for that purpose, fore¬ 
men should rule a sheet of paper, leaving a 
space between the lines for each report, with the 
different headings written at the top of each 
space; as they would appear on a regular printed 
form, as shown in the example. This saves sta¬ 
tionery for the company, it is simpler and lessens 
the work of the foremen, because it saves dating, 
signing, etc., several sheets where one would do; 
and the roadmaster in turn is benefited, because 
he is enabled to get through his correspondence 
much quicker and make up any accounts or esti¬ 
mates to be taken therefrom. All weekly or 
monthly reports should be condensed into one 
form when possible, as shown in the example. 

EXAMPLE. 


WEEKLY REPORT FOR WEEK ENDING JAN .... I 888. 


DAY OF 

THE WEEK. 

NUMBER OF 
MEN AT WORK. 

HARO TIES 
PUT IN TRACK. 

SOFT TIES 

PUT IN TRACK. 

S11 n d a v 




Monday. 

Tuesday. 

Wednesday. 

Thursday. 

Friday. 

Saturday. 















































288 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


SHIPPING TRACK TOOLS. 

50. Track foremen, when shipping tools or 
sending them to the repair shops, should always 
be particular to secure them in a neat package, 
so that it would not be possible for any of them 
to become separated or lost while in transit. The 
name and address of the repair shop foreman 
should be written plainly on the face of the ship¬ 
ping tag; and on the back of the same tag. the 
foreman should write his own name and address, 
together with a request that the tools be returned 
to him when repaired. 

A very convenient arrangement for securing 
tools together when shipping them, maybe made 
by running a piece of chain through the tools or 
around them, and locking with a spring key after 
passing one of the end links through one of the 
other links of the chain. The key should be 
fiat and just wide enough to fit the links in the 
manner mentioned. Fine soft wire is superior 
to twine for securing tools or for tagging them. 

DISTANCE TO SET OUT DANGER SIGNALS. 

51. Danger signals should be set out a dis¬ 
tance of not less than three thousand five hun- 
hred feet in both directions from the point where 
the track is impassible for trains. This distance 
can be measured by counting one hvndved and 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


289 


seventeen thirty foot rail lengths, 111 the direction 
you are going to set out the signals; or when the 
telegraph poles are one hundred and fifty feet 
apart, the signals may be set out twenty-three 
telegraph poles distant each way from the point 
of danger. 

When flagging at obscure places, or in the vi¬ 
cinity of descending grades, where it is difficult 
to stop a train, the distance to set signals must 
be doubled or the telegraph operator at the next 
station should be informed, so trains could be 
held until track was cleared and safe for their 
passage.. Where there is a sufficient force of 
men, and it is practicable, the flagmen should re¬ 
main out with the signals until the track is re¬ 
paired, or the train is stopped. In all cases dur¬ 
ing a snow storm, in foggy weather, or at night. 
the flagmen must remain out with the signals un¬ 
til all danger is passed. When the track has 
been repaired, and made safe for trains, the flags, 
torpedoes, or other signals should be removed 
immediately. 

ALWAYS KEEP SIGNALS WITH YOU. 

52. A track foreman should always keep on 
his hand car, ready for instant use, a full supply 
of torpedoes, red flags, or red lanterns, so that if 
any accident should render the track unsafe for 
the passage of trains, he would be prepared to 
protect them promptly. Flagmen sent out to 





2Q0 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


patrol the track should not be allowed to proceed 
without having with them all the necessary sig¬ 
nals to stop trains. The foreman should instruct 
them thoroughly in their duties , as he is respon¬ 
sible for them. 

The first duty of a track foreman when he 
finds a dangerous place in the track, no matter 
whether it is Ids oum section or not , is to set out 
stop signals at once; he should then go in the 
direction from which the next train is expected, 
and report the trouble at the nearest telegraph 
office. 


TIME CARDS AND RULES. 

53. A track foreman should keep well posted 
on the time of all regular trains passing over his 
section. He should also study and understand 
thoroughly all the rules of the company, for 
which he is working, that relate to his work; and 
if in doubt about anything, ask an explanation 
of it from a superior officer. Read over all the 
rules on the time card at every time a new card 
is issued on your road. 

NOTE OF FLAGS. 

54. Whenever it is necessary for a foreman 
to use flags, instruct the man who goes to set the 
flag out, how to place it. Set slow flag on the 
engineer’s side of train coming towards the place 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


291 


for which you are flagging; set the flag slightly 
leaning- so that most of it can easily be seen, and 
set it just far enough from the rail to clear engine 
and cars. A slow signal should be set out J of a 
mile or about ninety 30 feet rail rengths. 

STOP SIGNALS. 

1 

55. When a red flag or red light is used as 
a signal to stop a train, it should be set in the 
center of the track. Two torpedoes should be 
used together with the red signal day or night. 
The torpedoes should be placed sixty feet apart 
upon the rail, on the same side of the track, be¬ 
tween the red signal and the approaching train. 

LOOK OUT FOR SIGNALS. 

56. Foremen should always look for signals 
<on all passing trains. Another section of the 
same train which has passed, or a special, may 
be following close behind; and the track fore¬ 
man and his men should be fully informed, and 
Teep well posted as to the meaning of all signals 
displayed on passing trains. 

OBSTRUCTING THE TRACK. 

57. Track foremen should never attempt to 
use the track so as to obstruct a regular train. 




292 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


All work which would make the track unsafe for 
trains should be finished, and the track ready 
before a regular train is due from the nearest 
station in either direction from where }’Ou are 
working. 

When working close to a station, foremen 
should have the track safe and clear at least 
fifteen minutes before a train is due. 

No work, which would make a track unsafe,, 
should be done on the time of a delayed passen¬ 
ger train, except in case of emergency, and then 
the foreman himself, or a trusty man, should be 
out in the direction of the expected train, and 
take every precaution necessary to protect the 
train by proper signals. Always instruct the 
man who goes to flag a train in foggy weather, 
or during a snow storm, that, in case he finds it 
very difficult to attract the attention of the en¬ 
gineer or fireman on the approaching train, 
after they have passed his signal, he should, in 
some other manner, make known to the trainmen 
the presence of danger, unless an effort has been 
made to stop the train before it passes him. 

REPLACE SIGNALS. 

58. Trackmen finding danger signals along 
the track should leave them in the same position 
as found, and if the signals are injured so as to 
be unsafe, they should be replaced by good sig¬ 
nals of the same kind, or a man should be left to 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


2 93 


guard the point. It is the duty of a track fore¬ 
man, if he finds danger signals, to go forward and 
ascertain their cause, and to give assistance with 
his men, if the train men require their services. 

INJURED SIGNALS. 

59. All sign signals placed along the track 
for the guidance of trackmen or others, (when 
injured or broken) should be repaired at once, 
and placed in position by the trackmen; and if 
they are destroyed or renderered useless, the 
foreman should at once make requisition on the 
roadmaster for new ones. 

COMPLY WITH THE RULES 

60. Section foremen or others should use all 
signals strictly in compliance with the rules of 
the road governing their use. Never set out a 
danger signal at a shorter distance than that 
which is specified in the rules of the road as cor¬ 
rect, because a serious accident may be the re¬ 
sult, if a train cannot be stopped in time. 

LOCATION OF WHISTLING POSTS, PAINTED SIGNS, ETC. 

61. Station whistling posts should be set one 
half mile outside the switches, not from the de¬ 
pot, and on the engineer's side, the right hand 




294 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


side of the track to one approaching the station. 
Station mile boards should also be set one mile 
outside the switches, on the same side of the 

track as the whistling post. These two signs are 
used to warn the train men of the near approach 
to a station, that they may be able to get the 
train fully under control before reaching the sta¬ 
tion. The yard tracks at all railroad stations ex¬ 
tend some distance each way from the depot. 
It will not do to place the signs above mentioned 
at the distance stated from the depot, for the 
reason that in big yards they would often be in¬ 
side the switches. 

Whistling posts for highway crossings should 
be set one-fourth of a mile from the crossing, on 
the engineer's side of the track. Whistling 
posts or signs of any description should never be 
placed in a cut if it is possible to avoid it. It is 
always better to increase or diminish the distance 
to get them out of the cut. The distance should 
always be increased where there is a down grade, 
or when the law requires certain signs to be 
placed a specified number of feet or rods. This 
rule should also apply on sharp curves. All 
signs, which have a painted cross board on top 
of a post, should be set with the cross board at 
right angles to the track, so that the sign can be 
plainly seen by the train men for whom it was 
intended. The cross board on highway crossing 
signs should be parallel with the track, so that 
persons approaching the track from either side 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


295 


on the wagon road can see and read the painted 
sign. 

All posts and signs should be set firmly in the 
ground, and so far from the track, that if knock¬ 
ed down or blown over, they would not fall up¬ 
on it. Never set any signs in a leaning or twist¬ 
ed position. Highway crossing signs should be 
set far enough away from the center of the wag¬ 
on road, so that wagons loaded with bulky ma¬ 
terial, such as hay or straw, would not strike the 
sign post or the cross arm at the top of them. 

TRAINS DISRESPECT OF DANGER SIGNALS. 

62. Section foremen should report promptly 
to the roadmaster any failure on the part of train 
men to honor danger signals set out by himself 
or his men. If an engineer fails to whistle for 
brakes, and runs at a high rate of speed past the 
point for which you have set out a slow flag or 
if a train runs past a dangerous place before 
stopping, for which you set out the necessary 
stop signals, you must report all the facts to the 
roadmaster without delay, giving the engine and 
train number, and the time they passed the place 
where you were working. Foremen should not 
overlook any neglect of duty by the train men 
in this matter. Always remember that the safe¬ 
ty of trains, and the lives of passengers and em¬ 
ployes depends in a great measure upon a strict 
compliance with the company’s rules. 





296 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


LOOK OUT FOR TRAINS. 

63, Section foremen should always keep a 
sharo lookout for trains while working on track, 
while using hand cars, or while transferring ma¬ 
terial from one track to another on cars. Never 
trust too much in this matter to the men, as they 
are not held responsible for accidents. To be on 
the safe side, a foreman should always be ex¬ 
pecting a train, then he will be prepared for all 
extra trains or specials, of which he has no pre¬ 
vious notice. 


ALWAYS BE PREPARED. 

64. Whenever it is necessary for a foreman 
to go to a wreck or washout, or to assist at any 
kind of work which calls him away from his own 
regular work, he should be prepared, havnig lan¬ 
terns ready to light, tools all on the car, tape line 
in his pocket, etc. Don't start out half equipped 
with tools. When you find a place to fix up or 
repair, and there is need of tools, which you have 
not with you, you will have to send after them, per¬ 
haps delaying trains for an hour or more because 
of your carelessness. Don’t go out on track and 
discover a broken rail, and at the same time find 
that everything necessary for repairing it is on 
hand, except your chisels, and they are in your 
tool house, seven or eight miles away. A fore- 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


29 7 


man who is careless in these matters, is generally 
so in everything else he does, although he may 
hold his position for a time. The roadmaster 
has him marked down as poor material, and will 
always remove him as soon as he can put a bet¬ 
ter man in his place. 

HAND CAR AND TOOL HOUSES. 

65. The hand car and tool houses of track 
foremen should be kept outside the switches at 
yards, or wherever is the most convenient place. 
They should be located so that the men can get 
to and from work without being delayed by trains 
standing on the tracks* Tool and hand car 
houses and track supplies of any kind should al¬ 
ways be placed a sufficient distance from the 
track, so that they will not obstruct the view of 
the train men, or be likely in case of accident to 
fall on or near the track. 

TELEGRAPH OFFICE REPORT. 

66. Where a section foreman’s headquarters 
is located at a station, he should report at the 
telegraph office for orders and inquire for mes¬ 
sages before going out to work every morning, 
and immediately after working hours in the eve¬ 


ning. 



2q8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


REMOVING HAND CARS FROM CROSSINGS. 

67. No material of any kind should ever be 
piled or placed on a highway where it crosses the 
track. Section foremen or others should never 
take off their hand or push cars and leave them 
on the highway or private wagon crossings unless 
it is absolutely necessary to do so to get out of 
the way of a passing train. The car should then 
be immediately put back on the track, and re ¬ 
moved to a proper distance from the highway. 
Section foremen should p ovide places along 
their sections, at convenient distances not less 
than 100 feet from highways or crossings, where 
they can take off their hand or push cars, and 
leave them when necessary. Obstructing high¬ 
ways by leaving thereon track material, hand 
cars, etc., has been the cause of numerous acci¬ 
dents, and claims for damages against railroad 
companies. 


THROWING SWITCHES. 

68. Track foremen should not be in the habit 
of throwing switches for trivial reasons. Al¬ 
though it is the custom on most railroads to al¬ 
low section foremen to carry a switch key, they 
should not abuse this right by unlocking and 
throwing switches to move a hand or push car 
without a load from one track to another, or to 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


299 

accommodate train men who should do this work 
themselves. Hand cars and push cars, even with 
a light load, can as well be moved from one track 
to another, where the rails come close together, 
without throwing the switch. Men employed on the 
section should not be trusted to throw a switch, 
except in the presence of the foremen. When a 
switch has been thrown on a side track, the per¬ 
son throwing it should not leave it until after 
throwing the switch hack again on the main 
track and locking it. 

Any foremen who would throw, or allow others 
to throw a switch from the main track, and leave 
it in that position while performing a piece of 
work, or until it suited his convenience to throw 
it back, should be discharged; and he would be 
criminally liable if any accident should happen 
through his carelessness Those intrusted with 
the operation of switches cannot be to careful. 

LEAVING HAND CARS ON TRACK. 

4 

69. Some track foremen have a habit of 
leaving hand or push cars on the track, while 
cutting weeds or doing other work which requires 
frequent moving from place to place. This 
should not be done, d he main track should be 
kept clear at all times, except when track men 
must occupy it to do necessary repairs, at such 
times or when moving loads of material on cars, 
foremen should protect themselves with proper 
danger signals. 



300 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


Foremen should not leave hand cars on side 
tracks as they are liable to be smashed by trains 
switching, and cause a wreck at the same time. 

LOANING TOOLS, CARS, ETC., TO OTHERS. 

70. Track foremen should never loan to per¬ 
sons outside of the company's service any tools, 
hand car, velocipede car, push car, or track ma¬ 
terial of any kind which is intrusted to their care, 
without permission of their superior officers. 
Foremen themselves or their men should not use 
hand cars, velocipede cars, etc., on the track out¬ 
side of regular working hours, unless in the com¬ 
pany’s service, or with permission from the road- 
master. 

Foremen who adhere strictly^ to this rule are 
very seldom requested by outside parties to grant 
them any privileges, and thereby save themselves 
any trouble or annoyance. Track foremen 
should also remember that company material of 
any kind, no matter how valueless it may appear 
to them, is still the company s property\ and that 
they have no right to appropriate it for their own 
use, or to sell it to others, without authority from 
their superior officers. 


DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF TIES. 


7 1. Oil a railroad where different varieties of 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


301 


ties are used in the track, the softer kinds of wood 
should be used in straight track, and the hard 
wood ties should be used in the curves, and in 
sags between heavy grades where the speed of 
trains is very fast. If hard wood ties can be 
procured for a curve track they should not be 
mixed with soft wood ties in the same track, be¬ 
cause the rails will in the course of time cut a 
bed in the soft wood ties, and thereby affect the 
surface of the track. At the end of bridges and 
under switches are also good places to use hard 
wood ties, where they can be furnished for that 
purpose. White cedar is the best soft wood tie, 
white oak the best hard wood tie. 

CARE OF TOOLS. 

72. The following instructions in regard to 
the proper care and handling of shovels, claw 
bars, cold chisels, etc., are only given to bring to 
the notice of track foremen the necessity of look¬ 
ing after all of their tools, either in or out of 
service, and to see that they are not needlessly 
damaged or destroyed. Careless workmen are 
liable to injure track tools in numerous ways not 
mentioned in these pages, but which an intelli¬ 
gent foreman can see in time and prevent. 


HAND CARS, ETC. 


73. Hand cars, push cars, and velocipedes, 



302 


1 HE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


should be oiled regularly, the axle and other 
boxes kept tight, and care should be taken to 
have them ready for service at any time when 
needed. A good, light, easy running hand car 
saves labor, and foremen should not injure their 
hand cars by hauling loads of rails on them. It 
may sometimes be necessary to take one or two 
rails on a hand car to save time, in case of a 
broken rail or wreck. In such a case, balance 
the rail lengthwav on the car, and keep it as 
close as possible to the side of the car. 

SHOVELS. 


74. Shovels, more than all other track tools- 
used on a railroad, figure as a large item in the 
expense of general track repair. Track foremen 
should be very particular to instruct their men 
not to hold up the ends of ties with a shovel,nor 
to space ties in track with it, nor to stick the 
corners of a shovel blade in a tie to pull it under 
the rails, etc., and, in fact, not to use the shovels, 
in any way that will strain or break them. Tbe 
greater number of the old shovels which are 
thrown away as useless, could have been made 
to do good service a much longer time if handled 
properly. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


303 


COLD CHISELS. 

75. Cold chisels, when first dressed by the 
blacksmith, are not always of a good temper at 
the point. Track foremen should handle a cold 
chisel carefully when cutting the first rail with 
it. If it gets slightly blunted at the point, or a 
chip comes off from it, put it on the grind stone 
and grind it true, after which a chisel, which was 
hard before the grinding, will often cut a large 
numberof rails before it is necessary to send it to 
the shop again. 


USE OF CLAW BARS. 

76. Claw bars should not be used between 
the bottom of the rails and track ties to spring up 
the rails or raise track. Using claw bars the 
above way, especially in frosty weather, frequent¬ 
ly breaks off the claws on the end used for pull¬ 
ing spikes. Such breaks are difficult to repair, 
and if that end of the bar is a combination of 
iron and steel it is likely that enough of the steel 
will break off to render the bar useless. 


LINING BARS. 


77. Lining bars should be made as light as 
possible; just so strong that one man can 
not either bend or break a bar when pulling 



304 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


track to line. Foremen should not allow the 
men to use the small end of a lining bar in the 
ground when pulling track; and when not using 
them the men should stand up all bars with one 
end in the ground in hot weather, or keep them 
in the shade. This keeps the bars cool so that 
men can comfortably handle them; it also does 
away with the necessity of hunting through the 
grass for bars, when they are wanted to use or 
to take home. 


RAIL PUNCHES. 

78. If rail punches are used to make bolt 
holes in a rail, the work can be done quicker and 
as well with the punch alone, as with the aid of 
the cold chisel. If it is possible, always punch 
the bolt holes in a rail before cutting it, as old 
rails which are cut first, and punched afterwards) 
are liable to split under the ball of the rail. 
When a rail drill can be procured to bore the 
holes in a rail, never use a rail punch, and bore 
all the holes necessary to full bolt the joint. 

THE PLACE FOR TOOLS. 

79. Foremen should bring home every night 
and put in the tool house all tools which they 
have been using on track during the day. Nev¬ 
er leave tools out on the section. Unscrupulous 
persons who live near the track or who may pass 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


305 


along there are very apt to appropriate any tools 
which they find along the track. Any loss of 
track tools should be reported by foremen to the 
roadmaster. 


CUTTING STEEL. 

80. Whenever it is necessary to cut steel 
rails, track foremen should instruct the men how 
to do it properly. All steel or iron rails should 
be cut as accurately as possible as to length,and 
allowance for expansion should be deducted from 
the length of the rail. No careless work should 
ever be allowed, such as cutting the rail one inch 
or more short of the proper length. 

The line of the chisel cut around the rail 
should be continuous and square across the rail. 
Iron rails, as a general rule, need to be cut deep¬ 
er than steel before they will break off. Hard 
steel, if cut deep, is liable to become tough at 
the cut, and will sometimes break off on either 
side of the cut, leaving a bad unshapely end on 
the rail. To break off a rail at the cut, lift up 
the rail at the end nearest to the cut, and let 
the cut place fall over a piece of rail laid on a 
tie, or something solid laid across the track rails. 
Short pieces to be cut from rails may be broken 
off with the sledge. When cutting rails or 
punching them, trackmen should not use a spike 
maul to strike the chisel or punch, because this 
destroys the face of the spike maul, and splits 




3°6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


pieces from the head of steel tools, making them 
worthless in a short time. A good sledge made 
on purpose for striking hard steel tools should 
be one of the tools on every section, and should 
be taken in preference to any other tool of the 
kind whenever necessity requires its use. 


THE BALLAST IN YARDS. 

81. The yard track at all stations inside the 
switches should be dressed off level with the top 
of the ties, both inside and outside of the track 
rails. When there is enough ballast the shoul¬ 
der should be level and of a sufficient width to 
allow train men or passengers room to walk 
along outside the ties. Where yard tracks are 
close together no rubbish, or obstructions of any 
kind, should be placed on the space between 
them, or allowed to remain there. 

EXECUTE PROMPTLY. 

82. When the foreman receives an order from 
the road master to do any special piece of work, 
he should do it at once, and finish it up in the 
manner in which he is instructed. It is of the 
greatest importance that track foremen adhere 
strictly to this rule. Never let work wait to suit 
your convenience, nor do any work in a way con¬ 
trary to that in which you are ordered to do it. 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


307 


PROTECT AGAINST FIRES. 

83. In the fall of the year when the weeds 
and grass along the right of way have become 
dead and dry, section foremen should take every 
precaution to protect the compony’s property, 
and that of persons living near the track, from 
damage by fire. Fire started by sparks from lo¬ 
comotives, or from other unknown sources should 
be looked after at once and extinguished. Do 
not cease your efforts until you are sure all dan¬ 
ger is past. All wooden structures, bridges, cul¬ 
verts, etc., should be examined as often as vou 
pass them and any combustible matter which 
may be close to the timbers should be removed. 
Be particular, when burning rubbish or grass 
along the right of way, to always work with a fa¬ 
vorable wind. Run no risks, and if you see a 
doubtful smoke along the track, take your men, 
go to it at once, and find out what has caused it. 

THE CURVING HOOK. 

84. Where curving machines are not furnish¬ 
ed, the curving hook is a very handy tool, and 
there should be one kept on every section. 
With it and a track level, a foreman can straight¬ 
en rails or curve them, and also remove a sur¬ 
face bend from a rail weighing less than 65 
pounds per yard. 






THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


308 


The following is the manner of using it: 

Place two ties across the track nearly a rail 
apart, lay the rail upon the two ties, attach your 
curving hook to the track rail between two of 
the track ties, place the end of the lever in the 
curving hook, and press it down on the rail to be 
curved or straightened. A third tie or block is 
used to put under the rail to be curved, when 
the bend is short. The tie on either end is 
moved up closer to take out a kink without af¬ 
fecting the balance of the rail. To remove a 
surface bend from a rail, the rail should be 
placed work way on the top of the ties above 
mentioned, and under the lever, just as when a 
rail is being curved. 

REPORT STOCK KILLED. 

85. All stock killed or injured, and found ly¬ 
ing on the right of way by section foremen, 
should be reported promptly to the roadmaster. 
Section foremen should always report the stock 
killed or injured, whether they were struck by a 
passing train or died from natural causes. It is 
the duty of foremen to make an examination of 
the body of the animal found, find the owner if 
possible, and get the age and cash value of the 
animal. If it was struck by a train, give engine 
number, train number and time of the accident, 
if you know it. In your report give all other 
information which is likely to be of any value to 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


309 


the company you are working for. If the owner 
of a dead animal does not remove it from the 
right of way, the section foreman should take 
his men and bury the carcass after investigating 
the cause of accident, etc., 

Foremen have no right to appropriate to their 
own use (or to allow others to do so) the carcass 
or hide of any animal killed along the track. 

DAMAGE BY FIRE. 

86. When property along the right of way 
has been destroyed or damaged by fire, the sec¬ 
tion foreman should go to such place at once, 
examine the ground. thoroughly, measure the 
distance from the centre of the track to where 
the fire started, find the value of the property 
destroyed, make out an itemized estimate in his 
report; and also state the direction of the wind 
when the fire was burning, and give a true ac¬ 
count of every thing as far as he knows. Do 
not accept the statement of others until you know 
them to be correct. 


BE CAREFUL OF MATERIAL. 

87. When a track foreman lays or extends a 
piece of track, as soon as he has finished the job 
he should have every loose spike, bolt splice, 
etc., picked up and taken care of. Track ma- 




3io 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


terial lying around where a gang of men have 
been working, is very good evidence that the 
foreman is careless about his work and wasteful 
of the company’s property. If loose bolts or 
spikes were picked up and taken care of until 
used, many thousands of dollars would be saved 
for the company in a year. 

PICK UP SCATTERED MATERIAL. 

88. Never allow old iron taken out of track, 
old ties, broken brakes, links, pins, etc., to accu- 

* mulate on )’our section. Bring them into the 
station and ship to the points designated by the 
roadmaster, all except what is needed for use on 
your section. 

j 

DO FIRST WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. 

89. A track foreman should always have his 
work planned ahead. By giving close attention 
to the track, as he passes over it daily each way, 
a foreman will always be able to see what needs 
to be repaired most, and it is hardly necessary 
to say here that such work should be done at 
once. Do not ride over the same low joint every 
day, a joint half an inch out of gauge or line, or 
pass the same broken joint tie or bolt hanging 
loose in the splices expecting to fix such places 
the next week or waiting until the roadmaster 
calls your attention to these things. The longer 




GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


3i 1 


3011 wait, the more these little odd jobs increase 
in number, and at about the time you have set 
to do them you are called off to some place else. 
The work still increases during - your absence, 
and in this manner things go on the year round. 
Nou are always behind, always worried; you 
think the roadmaster hard because he urges you 
to hurry; you make excuses for yourself, as. for 
instance, that you were putting up a nice piece 
of track some where else op the section. But 
always remember that if you had ten miles of 
the best track in the country, all good track ex¬ 
cept one rail length, and that rail was dangerous, 
the balance of your section, no matter how good, 
would not save a train from getting wrecked, nor 
you from the blame that would justly fall upon 
you. In no other line of business does the old 
saying apply with greater force than on a rail¬ 
road. “Never put off till tomorrow what should 
be done to day.” 


HOW TO DO WORK. 

90. Experience will teach a foreman that the 
secret of keeping a good track on his section lies 
in doing all work well. Slight no work. Do 
not surface up track to make a big show for the 
present, but surface it as fast as it can be done 
to make track that will remain good a long time. 
Very smooth track, well lined and gauged, will 
stay good some times for years without much re. 





312 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELFER. 


pairing. On the other hand, track that might 
be called good, with an occasional slight dip in 
the surface, if there is much traffic over it, will 
soon be bad track; because, where quarters or 
joints are only one quarter of an inch low after 
the track is surfaced, the weight of an engine or 
loaded cars strike such low places with great 
force, and gradually increase the depression un¬ 
til the track becomes very rough and dangerous. 
If not cared for, low places in track knock out 
of gauge and line besides getting low. The 
same method of doing work will not answer al¬ 
ways. Foremen should adopt a method of do¬ 
ing work that will give the best results with the 
kind of material furnished. 

If you have only dirt for ballast, don’t always 
be telling what good track you could have with 
gravel or rock, but see how good a track you can 
make with dirt for a ballast. 

FOREMEN ON DUTY. 

91. When on duty, the foreman should al¬ 
ways be with his men and assist them in doing 
the work. It is his duty also to instruct his men 
by word and example as to the proper manner 
of performing all the different kinds of work in 
which they are together engaged. 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


3*3 


ADOPT THE BEST METHOD. 

92. If you can improve on the old method of 
doing any kind of work, when you are not satis¬ 
fied with the results of a trial, adopt a new plan. 
When you do any kind of work on track, and it 
does not give satisfaction, always try to find the 
remedy for its defects. Do not say it can't be done, 
but remember that a man who finds himself in a 
difficult position, if he has good judgment and a 
lively brain, can work out some of the most diffi¬ 
cult problems without any previous knowledge of 
them. Never take a slow . method to do any 
kind of work that you can do as well in a quick¬ 
er way. Don't forget that the world moves, but 
move with it. Try to learn something from the 
experience of others who are successful in the 
same profession as yours. A trifle of time 
gamed soon amounts to a day, month, or a year, 
if multiplied many times. Take for example 
two men spiking track, one strikes across the 
rail when his partner tacks the spike in the tie, 
then both finish driving their own spikes. 
Another man tacks his spike, and does all the 
driving on it himself without striking across the 
rail. On every spike he drives, the first man 
gains two motions which the second man loses, 
and at the end of a hard day’s work the first 
spiker will be a long distance ahead of the sec¬ 
ond man, and with considerably less labor; al¬ 
though to the inexperienced onlooker there 






3U 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


would be no perceptible difference in their meth¬ 
ods of working. 

Take for another instance the case of two 

foremen putting new ties in the track. One re¬ 
moves all the dirt or ballast from the center 
of the track to the outside of the rails in order 
to get a number of ties into track at once; the 
other foreman moves the material in the center 
of track back upon the new ties as fast as he 
puts in two or three; and bv method the latter 
foreman saves himself and his men the labor of 
shoveling many yards of b blast from outside the 
track rails to fill the center of the track. To 
bring a section of track up ro anything like per¬ 
fection, the foreman in charge of it must look 
closely after all the work i.i its minutest details, 
and allow nothing to go undone which would 
contribute towards improving the track. None 
but careless foremen will line up one side of a 
track well and then leave it without taking the 
kinks out of the gauge side at the same time. 
A careless foreman will put a new tie into track 
without taking up to surface a low joint close to 
it. He will cut weeds past a joint with a bolt 
broken out of it without putting in a new bolt. 
He will make a trip over the section, and never 
notice a break in a fence, or if he does note it 
will wait to be notified by the roadmaster to fix 
it. It is likely that you will find the same fore¬ 
man surfacing a piece of track without using a 
spirit level on it. Such a man is not fit to make 



GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS. 


3U 


a good laborer much less a foreman; and the 
piece of road in his charge will soon run down 
if he be not discharged, and replaced by a fore¬ 
man who has a desire to improve the track 
whenever he does work on it. The work of a 
careless foreman puts the roadmaster to watch¬ 
ing him, because he informs on himself everyday; 
while the careful, industrious foreman makes a 
good, permanent job wherever he works, and the 
result is a first-class track where recently may 
have been a very rough section. 





WRECKING. 


317 


WRECRIN 


1 

u. 


CHAPTER IX. 

1, Wrecking —2, On the ground—3, To square a car 
truck—4, When a center pin cannot be used—5, With¬ 
out an engine-6, Cars off on ties—7, Oil the rail—S 
Broken switches—9, Car trucks in the ditch—10, To 
connect broken chains,Fig. 28—11, To turn a car truck 
on soft ground—12, To put a wrecked gravel plow 
back on the cars—13, Sliding a car on a tie—14, Load¬ 
ed wrecked cars—15,—Broken center*pins—16, Pulling 
on a chain or rope—17, A dead man—18, Wrecked en¬ 
gines—19, How to work at a wreck. 


WRECKING. 


1. The first duty of a track foreman, when 
he receives notice that there has been an acci¬ 
dent, and he is wanted there, is to collect his 
men and take his hand car, and all his portable 
tools, even those which he thinks he is not likely 
to use. He should not go short of tools expect¬ 
ing that the other foremen there will have 
enough. The other foremen may think the 
same, and valuable time will be lost by the want 
of forethought of both. 














3i8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ON THE GROUND. 

2. When a track foreman arrives at the 
scene of the accident, he should proceed imme¬ 
diately to do whatever work, in his judgment,, 
would contribute most to putting the track in a 
passable condition for other trains, notwithstand¬ 
ing the absence of his superior officers, who may 
not be able to reach the wreck for several hours. 
If the track is torn up, and the cars do not in¬ 
terfere, put in ties enough to carry a train safely 
over where you can. If the rails are bent out of 
shape secure some from near by, if it is possible. 
If this cannot^be done, get as many as possible 
of the damaged rails to their proper shape, and 
spiked down in the track. 

If a small bridge or culvert has given away, 
crib it up with ties until you can cross it with 
track. If you cannot procure the ties along 
your section, and many are not needed, remove 
a part of the ties from the track where it is full 
tied, and where it will leave a sufficient number 
in the track to make it safe for the passages of 
trains. 

In the same manner, if you are short of bolts 
and spikes and too much time would be lost by 
going after them, borrow some from track where 
they can be spared and fix track to let trains 
pass. 



WRECKING. 


3 l 9 


TO SQUARE A CAR TRUCK. 

3. If one or both trucks beneath a cai should 
leave the track at once and turn across it as is 
often the case, uncouple from car and hitch a 
switch rope to the corner of the truck and to the 
draw head of the car next to the one which is 
off the track. Then pull the truck into a posi¬ 
tion parallel to the track, after which it can 
be put on the rails with the wrecking frogs. 

If the car should be loaded very heavily, it 
might be advisable to raise the end with jacks 
before squaring the truck. If the right man 
undertakes this job, the train need not be delayed 
over thirty minutes. 


WHEN A CENTER PIN CANNOT BE USED.’ 

4.. Sometimes when a car leaves the track, 
the center pin breaks, or is so badly bent that it 
cannot be used again. This often happens on 
the road when there is nothing at hand to remove 
the crooked pin. In such a case, if the car is 
empty, or not heavily loaded, it is best to roll the 
truck from beneath the car off the track, and 
haul the car into the station carefully supported 
on that end by the regular coupling pin and link. 

When the ends of a broken center pin do not 
project, the end of a car can be jacked up, the 
truck placed in position, and the end of the car 





32D 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


again allowed to rest in its place on the truck, 
after which, if watched carefully, t he car can be 
hauled a long distance. 


WITHOUT AN ENGINE. 

5. It often happens that a car gets off the 
track in such a place that it is impossible to get 
the help of an engine to pull it on again without 
considerable delay. When a case of this kind 
occurs, and there are other cars on the track 
near by, take the car nearest to the one off the 
track, and couple the two together with a c hain, 
or a rope long enough to give plenty of slack. 
Then get together what men are available, and 
push the car which is on the track close to the 
wrecked car. When you are ready to pull the 
wrecked car up on the track, start the car which 
is coupled to it away from it as fast as the men 
can push it. The jerk, when the slack of the 
line is taken up, will pull the car on the track as 
well as an engine can do it. If you . have men 
enough, use for the motive power two or more 
cars, if necessary. This is what is called “slack¬ 
ing a car onto track.” 

CARS OFF ON TIES. 

6. When cars have got off the track, and 
are still on the ties, it is best to put blocks or 
ties between those in the track to keep the 



WRECKING. 


321 


wheels from sinking between the ties. By doing 
this at once, before attempting to put the cars 
back on the track, will generally save considera¬ 
ble time and labor. 

OIL THE RAIL. 

7. If an engine or car mounts the outside 
rail of a sharp curve, and persist in running off 
the track, oil the rails thoroughly where the most 
trouble is experienced. This will generally al¬ 
low the engine or car to go around the curve 
without leaving the track. 

Very rusty rails on a curve track, which has 
not been used for some time, often causes the 
wheel to mount the outside rail of a curve, the 
surface not being smooth enough to allow the 
wheels to slide. 


BROKEN SWITCHES. 

8. If at any time, you find the connecting 
rod of a stub switch broken, or you want to use 
the switch and have no switch stand, slip a car 
link between the ends of the lead rails, allowing 
enough of it to project to hold the ends of the 
moving rails in place, or take a piece of plank of 
the right shape, and use it in the same way as 
the link. This is better. 





322 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


CAR TRUCKS IN THE DITCH. 

9. When the car trucks are thrown some dis¬ 
tance from the track in a wreck, the quickest 
method of putting them on the track again, if 
you have no derrick car, is to take bars and turn 
them almost parallel to the track, but with one 
end a little the closest to the track. Hitch a 
rope to this end of the truck, and to the engine, 
or the nearest car which is coupled to the engine, 
and the truck will pull onto the track easily, if 
there is nothing to obstruct its passage. 

TO CONNECT BROKEN CHAINS. 

10. A link made of iron or steel, and fash¬ 
ioned after the pattern shown in Fig. 28, is very 
handy to have when at a wreck, pulling cars or 
engines with a chain. If a chain breaks the two 
broken ends can be brought together, and fixed 
in this link as if held with a grab hook. 



Fig. 28. 

TO TURN A CAR ON SOFT GROUND. 

11. When car trucks are sunk in soft ground 
at a wreck, and there is no derrick car or other 










WRECKING. 


323 


lifting apparatus at hand, a good way to handle 
them is to place a tie cross way in the ground, 
about four or five feet from the truck, then place 
two more long ties or timbers, with their centers 
resting across the first tie, and their ends in front 
of the truck wheels. The truck can then be 
pushed up on top of the long ties as if on a track. 
When it is centered over the bottom tie, the truck 
can be easily turned to run in. any direction. 


TO PUT A WRECKED GRAVEL PLOW BACK ON CARS. 

12. Trackmen in charge of a ballasting outfit 
if they are new in the business, are often at a 
loss to know the quickest way to put a plow back 
on the cars, if it should accidentally be pulled 
off on the ground. The test way to do in such 
a case is to roll the plow or pull it with the en¬ 
gine and cable into the same position on the 
track that it would occupy on the cars; then raise 
up the snout of the plow until you can back the 
end of a car under it, hook the end of the cable 
to the plow, block the car wheels and pull the 
plow on to the car with the engine. 

SLIDING A CAR ON A TIE. 

« 

13. If the hind truck of any kind of a car 
should by accident be derailed, broken or ren¬ 
dered useless, the car could be taken to the next 





3^4 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


station by uncoupling it from the cars be hind it. 
Remove the disabled truck from the track; then 
take the caboose jacks and raise.the body of the 
car enough to slip a tie under it across the track 
rails; let the car down upon the tie, and by run¬ 
ning carefully the car can be hauled to the sta¬ 
tion or side track, sliding on the tie. 

LOADED WRECKED CARS. 


14. It is always best, when a wrecked car 
is loaded, to remove the load, or transfer it to 
another car on the good track. Outfits starting 
to go to a wreck should provide themselves with 
all the tools and appliances necessary for this 
purpose. 


BROKEN CENTER-PINS, 

15. Car-truck center-pins, which have been 
twisted or broken in a wreck, may be removed 
by going inside the car, and cutting away with a 
hammer and cold chisel the iron ring which 
forms the head and shoulder of the pin. The 
pin may then be driven down through the bottom 
of the car. 

There should always be a man on hand at a 
wreck to look after such jobs, and promptly re¬ 
move all broken break-beams, hanging irons, 
etc., so as not to delay the work after the cars 




WRECKING. 


3^5 


are picked up, or ready to be put upon the track. 

PULLING ON A CHAIN OR ROPE. 

16. \\ hen pulling on a chain or rope with a 
locomotive at a wreck, care should be taken not 
to have too much slack, as chains break easily. 
The same is true of switch ropes, but when they 
are new or not much worn, they will stand a 
greater slack strain than a chain will. Wire ca¬ 
bles are preferable to either a chain or a rope, 
for pulling, and they will stand a much greater 
slack strain, if not allowed to become twisted out 
of shape. 

There is always danger of chains or switch 
ropes breaking when engines are pulling on them 
at a wreck, and those working near should not 
be allowed to stand too close to them. 

A DEAD MAN. 

17. What is generally termed “a dead man ” 
is a device sometimes used to anchor a guy or 
stay rope, where wrecking cars, engines or der¬ 
ricks have to do very heavy hoisting or pulling. 
It is made by digging a trench five or six feet 
deep, at a proper distance from the track and 
parallel to it. A narrow cross trench is then 
dug, slanting upward from the bottom and mid¬ 
dle of the first trench, to the surface of the 





3 2 6 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ground. A good track tie or heavy timber is 
then buried in the first trench, and the rope is 
passed down through the cross trench and se¬ 
cured to the timber. 

WRECKED ENGINES. 

18. The first thing to do with a wrecked en¬ 
gine, if the frame is good, is to take jacks and 
put the engine in an upright position, such as it 
would occupy if standing on the main track. It 
may then be blocked up and raised sufficiently 
to place under it rails and ties, forming a tem¬ 
porary track. The main track should then be 
cut at a rail, joint, and lined out in an easy curve 
until the ends of the rails are in line with the 
temporary track. The tracks should then be 
connected and the engine pulled upon the main 
track. If the engine stands at such an angle as 
to require a very sharp curve in the track over 
which it is pulled, put plenty of oil on the track 
rails, and elevate the outside rail of the curve. 

If the engine is only off the rails, and still on 
the track ties, additional rails may be spiked 
down to the ties in front of the wheels' like a 
switch lead, and connected with a pair of the 
track rails. The engine may be pulled on again 
over this lead and the main track closed. This 
method is quicker and better, for putting a de¬ 
railed engine on the track when more than one 
truck is off the rails, than using frogs or blocking. 




WRECKING. 


' 327 


HOW TO WORK AT A WRECK. 

19. The first thing to do at any wreck of im¬ 
portance, where cars block the main track, is to 
use the first locomotive which can be put into 
service, and with switch ropes pull clear of the 
tracks all cars, trucks, or other wreckage which 
cannot be readily put back on the track with the 
facilities at hand for doing such work. Proper 
care should be taken, in doing this part of the 
work, not to injure freight in the cars. When 
necessary, remove it from the wrecked cars to a 
place of safety, and pull the cars and trucks in¬ 
to a position alongside the track, where it 
will be handy for the wrecking car to pick them 
up after it arrives. 

The moment the track is clear of wreckage, 
the track force should go to work and repair it, 
and quickly put it in good condition for trains. 

Track foremen should not allow their men to 
become confused or mixed up with* the other 
gangs of men which are present at a wreck, ex¬ 
cept when it is necessary for more than one gang 
of men to work together; even then the foreman 
should keep his own men as much together as 
possible, so as to always be able to control their 
actions and work them to the best advantage. 

No matter what part of the work at a wreck 
a foreman is called upon to do, he should act 
promptly, and work with a will to get the wreck 
cleared up, and the track ready for the passage ^f 
trains with as little delay as possible. 









MISCELLANEOUS-TABLES. 


329 




ANEOUS—TAB 


CHAPTER X. 

f, Work. Train Service—2, To whom responsible— 3, 
Track inspection—4, Standards adopted by the Road- 
master’s Association of America— 5, Standard rails—6, 
Standard track joints—7, Nut locks, track bolts and 
spikes—8, Longer rails—9, Premiums for track men—10, 
Hints to section foremen—11, Train yourself—12, Section 
record—13, Average day’s work for one man. 

14, Tables — Track Bolts —13, Spikes—16, Number of 
spikes—17, Tons of rails required for one mile of track, 
Table—18, Number of cross ties required for each mile of 
track—19, Length of rail and number of joints, 
splices and bolts for each mile of track—20, 

Weight per yard, per 30 foot rail and tons per mile. Table 
—21, Lumber table—22, Cubic measure—23,Square meas¬ 
ure—24, Surveyors measure—25, Long measure—26, 
Speed table for trains—27, Table of wages on a basis of 
10 hours per day—28, Table of wages one cent to S2.00 for 
any part of 30 days. 


WORK TRAIN SERVICE. 

i. Trackmen who are in charge of work train 
gangs should make it their business to keep the 
men employed whenever the train is delayed in 
the regular work. There is always plenty of 
work along the track at any point. A good fore- 























330 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


man will have his work laid out ahead, so that 
there will not be any delays, except those which 
are unavoidable. 

When possible, it is always best to put a good 
practical workman in charge of a gang of men 
on a work train. It is poor economy to have 
an inexperienced train man in charge of a work 
train and a large crew of n en (as is often the 
case.) When the position of foreman over the 
men and conductor of the work train is held by 
one person, the preference nould be given to a 
trackman if competent to r a the train, or to a 
man who has had some experience in both 
branches of the service. 

TO WHOM RE&P XSIBLE. 


2. Work train conductors and foremen of 
gravel pits, or of steam shovel outfits, should 
receive their working orders from, and be strictly 
responsible to the roadmaster, on whatever di¬ 
vision of the road they are working at the time. 
Work train conductors should report daily to the 
roadmaster on blank forms furnished for that 
purpose, and, if required, they should also report 
to the division superintendent. They should also 
make a lay up report to the train dispatcher every 
evening after quitting for the day, and inform 
him where the train will work the following 
day. 




MISCELLANEOUS-TABLES. 


33 1 


Work trains should always lay up over night 
at a telegraph station. 

Conductors of work trains should see that the 
axle boxes of all the cars in their trains are prop- 
erly packed, and oiled as often as necessary, and 
that all defects in rolling stock or track, where 
the train is working, are repaired. All accidents 
to cars, and anything which would interfere with 
or delay the work should be reported promptly 
to the roadmaster or superintendent, so that 
they may be quickly remedied. 


TRACK INSPECTION. 

3. There should be a well organized system of 
track inspection in force on every railroad, and 
it should be made efficient in proportion to the 
amount of traffic and the condition of the track. 

On roads where only 10 trains a day or less 
pass over track, an arragement could be made to 
have the section foreman, on days on which his 
work would not call him to the end of his section, 
send a man over to examine the track from what¬ 
ever point the gang were working and when¬ 
ever there would be economy in it. the hand car 

%/ 

could be run to the end of the section in prefer- 
ence’to sending a man over on foot. 

The writer does not believe it is good policy 
to force the section foreman to go over all his 
track daily, on long sections during the summer 
months when there is but few trains and plenty 






332 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


of work for him to do with a small crew of men. 
But in case of storms all track should be exam¬ 
ined da)' or night. 

When a railroad is double tracked, or there is 
a large number of trains daily over a single track, 
a regular track-walker should be employed, 
whose business would be to go over the whole 
section once a day in each direction, and to be 
required to report to the section foreman, and 
also to the station agent or operator, when there 
is a depot at both ends of section. 

The track walker should so time his passage 
over the section as to be able to see all of the 
track or at least the most dangerous points, a 
short time ahead of passenger trains, and when 
most of the trains run at night, his examination 
of track should be made altogether at night, the 
section crew or another track walker looking af¬ 
ter it in the daytime. 

During the winter months, when the ground is 
frozen solid a rule obligating the section foreman 
to see all of his section daily,, should be strictly 
enforced because at that time of year the danger 
of accidents is greater, and the amount of general 
track work that can be done is much less than at 

other seasons of the year. 

* • 

During extremely cold or stormy weather is 
just the time that track most needs to be ex¬ 
amined, and in order to insure inspection of track 
at least once a day, I would recommend that, 
when it is not possible to run a hand car, the 



MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


333 


section foreman with one of his men be allowed 

to ride one way on trains, against the storm to 

the next station or to the end of his section 

and return back over the track on foot carrying 

what signals and tools would be necessary in 

«/ 

case of an emergency. 

The conditions are so varied on different rail¬ 
roads and sometimes on small divisions of- a 
railroad that the writer believes each company 
can best organize a system of track inspection 
which in the judgment of its officers would be 
best suited to its wants. The foregoing methods 
are only offered as suggestions from which some¬ 
thing more useful might be designed. 

STANDARDS ADOPTED BY THE ROADMASTERS AS¬ 
SOCIATION OF AMERICA. 

4. Believing it to be a matter of the greatest 
importance that track men generally be as fully 
informed as possible on all subjects connected 
with their duties and especially the opinions ad¬ 
vanced or methods advocated by intelligent 
members of the profession for the betterment or 
improvement of the track service. I have de¬ 
voted space in the following pages to a few of 
the most important standards recommended at 
the different conventions of the Road Masters 
Association of America. 





334 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


STANDARD RAILS. 

5. On Thursday afternoon, October iith, 
1887, the Road Masters Association of America 
in convention assembled at Cobumbus, Ohio, 
discussed the subject of “Standard Rails. 
Following is the committees report which was 
accepted: 

To the President and Members of the Road mas¬ 
ter's Association of America. 

Your committee appointed to make a report 
upon the weight, form and mechanical construc¬ 
tion of railroad rails submit the following: 

1. Weight of rail—While it seems desirable 
for the increased weight of engines and tonnage 
of cars, plus their additional weight, together 
with the increase of speed', to use more metal in 
the rail, thereby allowing „ a greater degree of 
hardness, in as much as this subject is at present 
receiving considerable attention in railway circles 
as well as with the manufacturers of steel rails, 
your committee are not prepared to say (in con¬ 
sideration of the quality of rails now manufac¬ 
tured,) what its weight should be. However, we 
take pleasure in submitting for your considera¬ 
tion drawings and blue prints of rail sections, 
weight from 60 to 100 pounds per yard. 

2. Form ol rail—Your committee recom¬ 
mend No. 4, 5 and 6 of the accompanying blue 
prints. Your committee further recommend that 
this association urge the importance of a stand¬ 
ard section for aH weights, yet we fear the time 
has passed, if it ever existed, to bring engineers 
and manufacturers to unite upon a standard sec¬ 
tion. 



MISCELLANEOUS-TABLES. 


335 


3- Mechanical construction—This opens a 
volume of which we will touch but little, i. All 
the metal necessary to admit of hardening prop¬ 
erties sufficient to resist the traffic. 2. Perfect 
rolls and well finished in line and surface. 3. 
Rail to be as high as possible without sacrificing 
other proportions. Base equal to its height. It 
goes without saying that the proper distribution 
of metal gives the greatest strength and dura¬ 
bility. Isaac Burnett, 

R. A. Willis, 

T. Raffertx, 

O. S. Jordan, 

Committee. 

The discussion of the report of the committee 
on the subject of “Standard Rails’ was contin¬ 
ued by the convention into the next day's session. 
Then Mr.Feed, of the S. F. & W. Ry. offered the 
following substitute to the report of the com¬ 
mittee. 

“ It is our experience that with first class steel 
rail on our main trunk lines where the interchange 
of traffic necessitates the passage of a heavy ton¬ 
nage and heavy locomotives at rapid rates of 
speed on well ballasted and well tied roads, 
nothing leas than a 60 -pound rail is sufficient for 
the maintenance of a first-class track. On un¬ 
ballasted roads the weight of rail should be in¬ 
creased about 15 per cent, to make up for the 
absence of ballast, and on roads of lesser tonnage 
a rail of less weight to suit each special case, as 
determined by competent engineers and road- 
masters, should be adopted.” 

“A section of the usual T pattern, made with a 
sufficient quantity of metal in the head to best 
resist wear, and so formed- as to give the greatest 





336 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


strength and economy of metal and the greatest 
bearing surface for both tread and flange, is in 
our judgment the best.” 

“The rail should be perfectly straight, with¬ 
out mechanical flaws. It should contain as high 
a percentage of hardeners as possible to give 
toughness, and, at the same time, avoiding too 
great brittleness; these qualities to be determined 
both by appropriate chemical and mechanical 
tests and by careful inspection. 

The above substitutes were accepted by the 
committee and adopted unanimously by the 
convention. 


STANDARD TRACK JOINTS. 


6. On Wednesday, September 12, 1888, the 

Roadmasters' convention held at -Washington,- 
D. C.. discussed the subject of standard track 
joints. Following is the majority committee’s 
report as presented and accepted: 

The undersigned, a majority of the Committee 
on Standard Track Joints, beg leave to submit 
the following report: That the best device 
now known to them for a standard joint 
is the angle bar. That this* angle bar should be 
from 42 to 44 inches in length, with slots for 
spikes 2 and 6 inches from the ends, with six 
bolt holes, spaced from 6 to 7 inches apart, rest¬ 
ing on three ties, 9x7 inches and 8 inches apart, 
weight 60 pounds per pair for a 6o-pound rail, and 
increased proportionately for increased weight of 
rail shaped to conform to the head and flange of the 
rail, allowing about 3-16 inch space between the 



MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


337 


splice and the web of the rail, to permit of tight¬ 
ening' The cross section of joint shown by fig¬ 
ure 6, page 28, of annual report for 1887, nieets 
our views as to shape and fit. The bolt holes 
in both plates should be oblong in form, and 
round or button head bolts, elongated under the 
head to fit the oblong hole in the plate should be 
used. For rails weighing from 60 to 70 pounds 
per yard, a splice bolt | of an inch in diameter 
with a square nut of the proper size should be 
used when practicable; and for rails weighing 
over 70 pounds per yard a bolt g of an inch in 
diameter of the same form should be used, and 
a metal washer or spring should be used between 
the nut and the plate. As far as we now know 
we are in favor of giving the angle bar, made 
heavy in the center and tapered towards the 
ends, a more extended trial before deciding on 
its merits over one of a uniform thickness through¬ 
out. That we decidedly prefer a supported joint 
to what is generally known as a suspended joint. 

P. Nolan, 

A. B. Adams, 

T. Hickey. 

After the subject of Standard Track Joints 
had been discussed for some time, and it being: 
necessary to proceed with other important ques¬ 
tions before the close of the session. Mr. Ellis, 
of the P. & W. Ry. offered the following resolu¬ 
tion which was carried unanimously. 

Re^olvid, That both the minority and majori¬ 
ty reports of the “Committee on Standard Track 
Joints” be recommitted to the committee to re¬ 
port at the next meeting, with the request to 
members who are so situated as to be able to ex¬ 
periment with the two-tie, suspended, heavy 






33§ 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


angle bar, and the three-tie supported angle bar 
as a joint, placing the same not only on the new 
steel rail being laid, but upon steel rail that has 
been in use and that is somewhat crippled by 
use. To report to the committee the practical 
results of such experiments. 

At the Denver convention of the Road Masters 
Association of America, held Sept, ioth, 1889, 
the subject of “Standard Track Joints" was 
again discussed and the committee reported in 
favor of the details presented by the “Majority" 
report at the Washington meeting, with an 
amendment recommending the use of a plate of 
iron or steel laid on the ties undef the base of 
the rails to be used in conjunction with the angle 
bar. 

But in the discussion which followed it became 
evident that but few of the members favored the 
use of a base plate and McCourtney of the L. S. 
& M. S. Ry. offered the following amendment. 

Resolved , That the long angle bar resting up¬ 
on three ties—one tie to be placed under the cen¬ 
ter—makes the best joint known. The angle bar 
is to be of sufficient weight to resist the strains 
under all circumstances. Their length should be 
from thirty-six to forty-eight inches, being gov¬ 
erned by the number of ties used per mile, mak¬ 
ing the ties the same distance from center to cen¬ 
ter that they may be under any part of the rail. 
The angle bar is to be fastened with four or six 
bolts and slotted for spikes at each end. They 
should be made of a good quality of steel. 

This amendment was accepted by the presi¬ 
dent and voted upon and carried by a two thirds 




MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


339 


vote of the members present. 

NUT LOCKS, TRACK BOLTS AND SPIKES. 


7. At the afternoon session of the first days 
proceedings, the eighth Annnual Convention of 
the Roadmasters* Association of America, held 
at Detroit, September, 9, 10, 11, 1890. The 

committee on nut locks, track bolts and spikes, 
presented ihe following report: 

To the President and J\ fan Iters Poadnias tees' As¬ 
sociation of America'. 

Gentlemen —Your Committee appointed to 
consider and report on the subject of nut locks, 
track bolts and spikes respectfully report, recom¬ 
mending that railroad officials should exact, and 
manufacturers should give greater attention to 
the production of track fastenings, superior both 
in material and workmanship. The great ten¬ 
dency is to cheapen the product at the expense 
of its quality, and this your committee deem it 
wise to protest against. With reference to nut 
locks, there are two general classes—positive 
and elastic. Your Committee does not consider 
it proper to suggest any particular manufacture 
or design, but recommend the following general 
specifications: 

For general main line use, and elastic steel 
nut lock washer, made with sufficient resistance 
to require a pressure of at least 3,000 pounds to 
compress it; the total possible compression not to 
exceed § of an inch. For frogs and crossings, an 
elastic washer with a resistance of 6,000 pounds, 
or a positive nut lock may be used. The elastic 





340 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


washer should present a total bearing surface— 
upon each nut and the plate—of at least J of a 
square inch; and it would be better if that sur¬ 
face could be increased to at least i -square inch. 

A washer of this character should be used with 
every bolt, and should be compressed by the nut, 
not to exceed So per cent, of its possible com¬ 
pression. 

With reference to track bolts we would rec¬ 
ommend the following diameters: For rail from 
50 to 60 pounds per yard, J-inch; from 60 to 80 
pounds, g-inch; above 80 pounds, i-inch, and 1- 
inch bolts should be used with all frogs. The 
material of all bolts and nuts should be steel. 
In length bolts should not extend “more than 
from nut when the latter has been screwed up 
properly. Threads should be of standard pattern, 
and both nuts and bolts should be threaded so as 
to produce, as nearly as possible, a uniform and 
close contact between the planes of the threads. 
Heads of bolts should be round, with an oblong 
shoulder next to head to prevent turning. The 
nut should be of hexagonal pattern, the thick¬ 
ness of nut, and the width of each hexagonal 
face, should be the same as diameter of bolt. 

With reference to spikes we would recommend 
steel as the best material. Pattern the same as 
now in general use, and size 5 J inches long un¬ 
der the head by 9-16-inch diameter. The points 
should be neatly finished—of such a shape as to 
admit of driving without turning from the rail, 
and to avoid seriously injuring the fibre of the 
wood. 

We recommend steel spikes because we believe 
that such material, properly tempered, will wear 
far better than iron at that part which comes in 
contact with the rail, and. also, because we be- 




MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


34i 


lieve a steel spike stronger than an iron one 
of the same dimensions. G. \\ T . Bishop, 

M. Philbim, 

J. M. Meade, 

H. W. Reed, 

J. Kindelan. 

The above report was accepted and discussed 
and after being read a second time on a motion 
made by president Creig. It was adopted unan¬ 
imously by the convention. 


LONGER RAILS. 


8. Why should the length of a track rail be 
only 30 feet if it can be demonstrated that there 
is economy in using a rail 36 feet in length or 
longer. A rail 12 yards long, 80 pounds to the 
yard, weighs less than 1,000 pounds, and as it 
does not require to be handled a second time un¬ 
til after it has lain in the track a number of 
years, I think there can be but little objection to 
the increase in the weight of a rail with regard to 
the handling, and further, when such a rail is 
taken out of the track after long service, to have 
the battered ends sawed off, it would still make 
a good, long rail; far ahead of the cut steel rails 
which are used second hand nowadays. 

The use of rails 12 yards long will take one- 
sixth of the joints out of track, which means one 
hundred miles of joints out of a track six hun¬ 
dred miles in length. This is no small item to 




342 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


consider, saving as it does, 3,500 lbs. of angle bar 
splices to the mile, and 360 bolts, not including 
those bolts used to replace broken ones during 

the life of the rails. There are also 360 nut 
locks saved per mile besides the labor required 
to put on these fastenings and keep the track in 
repair at the joints. Taking all things into ac¬ 
count I think a big saving could be effected an¬ 
nually in the cost of maintaining any ordinary 
main track, and the amount which could be 
saved in the first cost would be more than a mil¬ 
lion dollars in laying all the track of one of the 
larger railroads. Every trackman knows that 
the rail joint requires more labor than any other 
part of the track, and for this reason alone I 
would advocate making their number less. I 
think when considering the question, whether it 
is advisable to use a longer track rail, the only 
objection of any consequence that could be 
raised, would be on account of expansion and 
contraction, and the extremes of temperature of 
the locality in which the rails are to be laid will 
determine to a great extent what should be the 
limit to the length of the track rail if used with 
the present joint fastenings. 

Investigation should be made to find out what 
is the greatest possible length of rail that may be 
used without injuriously affecting the track. I 
am of the opinion that a rail thirty-six feet long 
can be used with the joint fastenings now in use, 
in more than half of the United States, and 




MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


343 


where the extremes of temperature are within a 
range of one hundred degree a much longer rail 
may be used; for instance, below the frost lines 
in the Southern States. 

The theory of a continuous track with the 
joints welded by electricity, and the expansion 
and contraction controlled by split rails put in at 
intervalls along the track, has many objections, 
as have also some other new methods which were 
proposed as a means of lessening the number of 
joints in tracks, while but few, if any, objections 
of any consequence can be brought against the 
method advocated in this paper, and it seems to 
me the question can hardly be questioned that 
such a rail will make a smoother riding and a 
safer track than one thirty feet long, and effect a 
great saving in first cost, labor and maintenance. 

PREMIUMS FOR TRACK MEM. 

9. There are several railroad companies 

which have a premium system in force, and I be- 

*• 

lieve that every railroad company in the United 
States should have some kind of a premium sys¬ 
tem, because with such a system, (if managed 
properly) it is an easy matter to make poor men 
good, and good men better. It must also be a 
great aid in keeping a much larger number of 
good men in the service, it stimulates a friendly 
rivalry amongst the men, and causes many of 
them to become more energetic and ingenious in 





344 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 


contriving means by which to accomplish better 
results. 

Necessity is a great force to make men work, 
but it has not the same power to lead a man to 
put forth his best efforts that some marked rec¬ 
ognition of his services has. The hope of re¬ 
ward often makes a man industrious and trust¬ 
worthy, who would perhaps otherwise be lazy 
and careless of the company’s interests. 

Railroad officers should make their promotions 
in the track service as much as possible from 
among the men working under them on the same di¬ 
vision of the road. Because the prospect of sure 
promotion as the reward for faithful service and 
ability, will bring out the best efforts of most 
men. Even where this policy is pursued the 
chmces for the average trackman are none too 
many. 

I do not favor any premium system which is 
not based on absolute fairness; any other would 
only cause jealousy, and be injurious both to the 
company and the employee. For instance, take 
a section of track where the conditions are such 
that a foreman in charge needs to make but little 
effort to keep it in better shape than the other 
sections along the road. He should not receive 
the highest premium. But when a foreman is in 
charge of a section of track which is very diffi¬ 
cult to keep up to the required standard, and 
through his ingenuity and industry succeeds in 
improving this section better, in proportion to 



MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


345 


his help and the surrounding circumstances* 
than the other foremen on the division, no matter 
whether his section was a mud or stone ballasted 
track, on either branch or main line, that fore¬ 
man should receive the highest premium. It 
might be well when inspecting the track before 
making the award of premiums, to have the men 
from one division act as judges of another divis¬ 
ion; and in making the awards, the foreman 
whose track received the greatest number of 
points on line and gauge surface and level should 
always rank the highest. 

I think that premiums offered in the track fore¬ 
man’s department should not bring into compe¬ 
tition any more than the number of men work¬ 
ing under one superintendent’s or roadmaster’s 
management, because as the number of compe¬ 
titors is increased the men’s interest decreases 
(except when they are favorably located) and the 
chances for making a just and fair award be¬ 
comes less in proportion. 

There ought to be at least four premiums offer¬ 
ed on each roadmaster’s division; one of fifty 
dollars, of twenty-five dollars, one of fifteen dol¬ 
lars, and one of ten dollars. Such a distribution 
of the prizes would bring the men into competi¬ 
tion nearer home and more on equal footing, and 
their chances of securing a prize would be great¬ 
ly increased. The method of increasing the 
wages of track foremen in proportion to their 
ability and length of service, making a difference 





346 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


of, say, ten dollars per month, between minimum 
and maximum wages paid to section foremen at 
the same grade of work, would be more ex¬ 
pensive I believe than giving premiums, but it 
might accomplish the best results in some locali¬ 
ties. 

Tne adoption of either of these methods, 
should accomplish good res ilts on any railroad. 


HINTS TO SECTION FOREMEN. 

io. Track foreman sho id be respectful to his 
superior officers without be’ 1 * servile, and when 
talking or writing to them he should show a con¬ 
fidence in himself without making too much of 
an exhibition of self conceit or stubbornness, 
either of which will only be awarded with their 
ridicule or contempt. A m m who is placed over 
other men should have a will power strong 
enough to control them and maintain his authori¬ 
ty without being either abusive or profane. To 
bulldoze an inferior is not the way to either in¬ 
struct him or gain his respect. 

Foremen who can keep good men, and secure 
more men when wanted, are more valuable to a 
railroad company than those who frequently dis¬ 
charge men and who seldom have help when it is 
needed. 

Try to gain the respect of your men and you 
will have faithful workers. To do this it is not 
necessary that you be too familiar with them. 



MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


347 


If you have a man working for you who will 
not do the work as you instruct him, discharge 
him and get some man who will. But do not 
work along in a groove, and think you have 
learned it all, and if any of your men suggest 
something which you know to be an improve¬ 
ment do not be ashamed to adopt it. 

Track foremen should learn the habit of study¬ 
ing out the best method of doing each piece of 
work on which they are engaged, and when 
practicable have the work planned out before 
hand. The mind can often do more than the 
hands. 

A good track foreman will have a keen inter¬ 
est in his work, and be ambitious to show good 
results as will the last day hi works for a 
company, as when he was first promoted from 
the shovel. 

Foremen who are not prompt in executing the 
orders of the roadmaster, and who often do work 
in a way contrary to that in w r hich they have 
been instructed, seldom hold a position long on 
any road. This kind of men, together with that 
class which frequent saloons and get drunk oc¬ 
casionally, constitute about nine-tenths of the 
section or track foremen who are discharged for 
cause. Roadmasters very seldom discharge a 
foreman for his want of knowfiodge about some 
particular piece of work, and they are always 
willing to give information as to the best meth¬ 
ods of doing the work when asked for it. When- 





348 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


ever a track foreman begins to think his work is 
too hard and his pay is too small, or that the offi¬ 
cers of the road are not using him right, he be¬ 
comes careless and loses all interest in the work. 
That man should quit at once and go hunt a job 
in some other place where he might be better sat¬ 
isfied and appreciated. Every track foreman 
should make a continued effort to elevate his pro¬ 
fession and make it respectable. Be sober, hon¬ 
est and industrious and you will be successful. 


TRAIN YOURSELF. 


11. The young man who works on track with 
pick and shovel, and his brother laborer in other 
departments of the railway service, should make 
some effort to improve themselves mentally, 
while working in subordinate positions, if they 
look beyond their present needs and have any 
ambition to be promoted. 

The simple fact that a man has learned howto 
perform a certain duty as well as his superiors, 
does not make him their equal mentally, or fit 
him to take their places. He should have ac¬ 
quired an education during his service or before 
it, which would show to observers that he had 
improved with time in mind, manners and 
habits. Many old railroad men grumble when 
they see new men enter the service, and quickly 
climb the ladder of promotion, while they still re- 



MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


349 


main in the same old rut. But such men are 
generally blind to the fact that the men so pro¬ 
moted are their superiors in intelligence and 
ability. 

There are some cases, no doubt, where a per¬ 
sonal preference or prejudice influences the se¬ 
lection of men, but such instances are becoming 
very rare now-a-days. The intelligent, practical 
man will always be selected to fill the higher po¬ 
sitions on a railroad, and from whom can he as 
well be selected, as from the workers who have 
studied the details of the service, and are capa¬ 
ble of improving on the work of others. 

Even the uneducated track laborer may ob¬ 
serve the methods of his superiors in the same 
line of work; he can devote a little time to study 
evenings, and by reading newspapers and books 
which give information on subjects connected 
with his work, he will soon acquire an education 
sufficient to fit him for something better. The 
fact that a man cannot attend a school does not 
put an education beyond his reach. A young 
workingman’s intellect and ability to learn should 
be much stronger and greater than when he was 
a boy. Always remember that your promotion 
to a higher position and better wages will depend 
in a great measure on your intelligence and abili¬ 
ty to earn it. 

A man without an education sufficient to en¬ 
able him to manage his business properly is like 
a saw blade without a handle, or a locomotive 





350 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELFER. 


disabled on one side. He is a cat’s paw for the 
monkey, and like a stray goose may be plucked 
by every sharper with whom he comes in contact. 


SECTION RECORD. 


12. I would like to call the attention of 
trackmen generally, and especially section fore¬ 
men, to the importance of keeping a record of 
everything connected with the piece of track in 
their charge. Every foreman should know the 
length of his section, the amount of straight and 
curve track, the degree of every curve, the dif¬ 
ferent brands of steel or iron rail, how much of 
each and when laid. He should also know the 
number of cuts on his section and the amount of 
snow fence, if any, on each cut; the bridge and 
culvert numbers and highway or railroad crossi- 
ings, and the distance they are from his head¬ 
quarters; and many other facts of importance 
which are very valuable to assist a man in organ¬ 
izing work, and making comparisons, also that he 
may be in a position to answer questions of his 
superior officers as to location of places and 
things without the necessity of making special 
examinations when the time cannot \yell be 
spared. The following example illustrates a 
simple form for condensing the information re¬ 
ferred to, and is a handy way for foremen to write 
it out on the pocket memorandum. 



MISCELLANEOUS-TABLES. 


35i 


SECTION NO. IO. 


Length of Section. 

. . 6 miles, 1,000 feet 

“ “ north side track . . 


“ “ house track. 


\ “ south track. 



BRIDGE NO. 

NO. OF BENTS. 

LENGTH 

OF SPAN. 

DISTANCE FROM 
STATION. 

50 

51 

52 

3 

8 

Iron. 

30 feet. 

100 „ 

120 „ 

2 miles. 

21/2 '• 

314 “ 

CULVERT NO. 

BOX. 

STONE. 

IRON PIPE. 

DISTANCE FROM 
STATION. 

186 


1 


11/2 miles. 

V'c *< 

187 



i 

188 

1 



21/2 “ 



CUTS, LENGTH 
IN FEET. 

HEIGHT 
ABOVE RAIL. 

PANELS OF 
SNOW FENCE. 

DISTANCE FROM 
STATION 

One 352 
“ 488 

“ 1260 

4 feet. 

8 “ 

9 “ 

22 

30 V, 

89 

3 miles. 

31/2 “ 

4 

STEEL RAIL, 
AMOUNT. 

WHEN 

LAID 

BRAND. 

EXTENDS FROM STATION. 

4 miles. 500 ft. 
Iron. 2 miles. 

1886 

N. C. R. M. Co. 

West — 

From Steel to End of 

500 feet. 

1875 

Crawshaw. 

Section. 


AVERAGE DAY’S WORK FOR ONE MAN. 


13. The amounts of labor given below can 
each be performed by one good man in one day, 
and will serve to show comparatively the relation 
existing between the labor of one man, and that 
of a large gang of men, at any of the different 
kinds of work specified*: 

ONE MAN CAN - 

Lay to place on a grade one-eighth of a mil*- of ties; 

Spike one-tenth of a mile of track laid on soft ties; 






















































352 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


Spike one-fourteenth of a mile of track laid on hard ties; 
Splice and bolt one-sixth of a mile of track; 

Clean with a shovel one-eighth of a mile, average weeds; 
Unload io cars of gravel; 

Unload 8 cars of dirt; 

Load upon cars eighteen to twenty-four yards of gravel; 
Load upon cars twenty to twenty-five yards of dirt; 

Load coal into buckets for engines, 15 to 20 tons; 

Unload coal cars into shed, 25 to 30 tons; 

Put in a dirt ballast track twenty new ties: 

Put in a gravel ballast track fifteen new ties; 

Put in a stone ballast track eight to ten new ties; 

Do labor equal to ballasting sixty feet gravel track: 

Do labor equal to ballasting thirty-five feet stone track. 
Chop two cords four foot wood; 

Make fifteen to twenty-five hard wood ties; 

Make thirty-five to forty soft wood ties: 

Sixty men can lay one mile of track in a day. 


TRACK BOLTS. 


14. The number of bolts in a 200 pound keg 
of track bolts, Hex. nuts if x |, is as follows. 


SIZE OF BOLT. 

NO. PER KEG. 

NO OF BOLTS REQUIRED FOR ONE 
MILE OF TRACK. 

4 BOLTS TO JOINT. 

6 BOLTS TO JOINT . 

31/2 x $4 

3% x % 

4 x $4 

240 

227 

218 

6 Kegs. 

6 £ Kegs. 

6 i Kegs. 

8 £ Kegs. 

94 Kegs. 

9| Kegs. 


Bolts of the size here given are the ones 
now most generally in use on standard gauge 
railroads. 














M 1 SC E L L A N E O U S -T A B L E S. 


353 


SPIKES. 

i 5. Owing to the differences in the shape of 
the heads and the general form of the body of 
the spikes manufactured by the different com¬ 
panies who furnish railroad supplies, it is not 
possible to make'a table which would show the 
correct number of spikes, of all sizes, per keg of 
150 or 200 pounds weight. The spikes most 
commonly used to spike narrow gauge and stand¬ 
ard gauge track are as follows: 


TABLE. 


SIZE 

AVERAGE NO. PER 

WEIGHT PER YARD 

NO. OF KEGS PER 

KEG OF 200 LBS. 

OF RAILS USED. 

MILE 

4 x 1/2 

fiOO 

25 

18 

41/ 2 x l/ 2 

525 

35 

?1 

5 x 1/2 

448' 

35 to 45 

24 

5V2 X i'G 

378 

45 to 75 

28 


To ascertain the number of spikes in a keg, 
for any size of spike not mentioned in the table: 
divide the full weight of a keg of spikes, less the 
keg, by the weight of one spike, and the quotient 
will be the number of spikes contained in the 
keg. 
















354 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


NUMBER OF SPIKES. 


16. A 200 pound keg contains on an average 
378 spikes, 5 h x 9-16. 

The following table shows the number of ties, 
30 foot rails, and feet of track that can be spiked 
in full, by different numbers of kegs of spikes, 
5 J x 9-16 inches. 

TABLE. 


No ot Kegs51/2x9-16. 

No. of Ties. 

30 Foot Rails. 

Feet of Track. 

One. 

94J 

6i 

190 


Two. 

189 

12 - 
1 w 2 

380 


Three. 

283^ 

18 13-16 

5/0 


Four. 

378 

25 h 

760 


Five. 

472J 

31 J 

945 


Six. 

-567 

37 5-6 

ii 35 


Seven. 

66lJ 

44 1-10 

1330(1 

m) 

Fourteen .. 

1323 

88 1-5 

2640Q 

: m) 

Twenty-eight. . . 

2646 

176 2-5 

5280(1 

m) 


There is no allowance made in the above ta¬ 
ble for broken spikes. The number is often 
large when laying new track, and foremen may 
find it necessary to order one or more kegs than 
the amount given in this table. 




















MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


355 


TONS OF RAILS REQUIRED FOR ONE MILE OF TRACK. 


17 . Rule.— To find the number of tons ( 2240 ) 
of rails to the mile. Divide the weight per yard 
by 7 , and multiply the quotient by 11 . Thus for 
56 pound rail, 56 divided by seven equals 8, mul¬ 
tiplied II, equals 88 tons rails one mile of single 
track. 

TABLE. 


Weight 

Per 

of Rail 
Yard. 

Tons 

Per Mile. 

1 VVeignt 
Per 

or Kail 
Yard. 

Tons Per Mile. 

I 2 

lbs 

12 t, 

920 

lb 

64 

lbs 

IOO t, 

1 280 

lb 

14 

lbs 

22 t. 



65 

lbs 

102 t, 

320 

lb 

l6 

lbs 

25 t, 

320 

lb 

68 

lbs 

I 06 t, 

1920 

lb 

18 

lbs 

28 t, 

64O 

lb 

70 

lbs 

I IO t. 



20 

lbs 

31 t, 

960 

lb 

72 

lbs 

I 13 t, 

320 

lb 

22 

lbs 

341. 

1280 

lb 

75 

lbs 

H 7 b 

1920 

lb 

25 

lbs 

391, 

64O 

lb 

76 

lbs 

H 9 b 

960 

lb 

26 

lbs 

40 t, 

1920 

lb 

77 

lbs 

12 I t. 



27 

lbs 

42 t, 

960 

lb 

73 

lbs 

122 t, 

0 

CO 

M 

►—« 

lb 

2 8 

lbs 

441. 



79 

lbs 

I24t, 

320 

lb 

30 

lbs 

471, 

320 

lb 

80 

*. 

lbs 

1251, 

l600 

lb 

33 

lbs 

511, 

1920 

lb 

81 

lbs 

I 27 t. 

64O 

lb 

35 

lbs 

551 - 



82 

lbs 

128 t, 

1920 

lb 

40 

lbs 

62 t, 

1920 

lb 

83 

lbs 

1 3° t, 

960 

lb 

45 

lbs 

70 1 , 

1600 

lb 

84 

lbs 

132 t. 



.48 

lbs 

75 b 

960 

lb 

35 

lbs 

1 33 t. 

1280 

lb 

50 

lbs 

781, 

1280 

lb 

86 

lbs 

1 35 t- 

320 

lb 

52 

lbs 

81 t, 

l600 

lb 

87 

lbs 

136 t, 

l600 

lb 

56 

lbs 

88 t. 



88 

lbs 

1 38 t, 

64O 

lb 

57 

lbs 

891, 

1280 

lb 

89 

lbs 

1 39 1. 

1920 

lb 

60 

lbs 

941, 

640 

lb 

90 

lbs 

1 4 1 b 

960 

lb 

62 

lbs 

971, 

960 

lb 

9 i 

lbs 

1431. 


















356 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


1 8 . NUMBER OF CROSS TIES REQUIRED FOR 
EACH MILE OF TRACK. 

TABLE. 


DISTANCE FROM CENTRE TO CENTRE 

NUMBER OF TIES. 

i foot 6 inches 

3520 

1 foot 9 inches 

3017 

2 feet 

2640 

2 feet 3 inches 

2343 

2 feet 6 inches 

2113 

2 feet 9 inches 

192 I 

3 ^et 

I 76l 


19. LENGTH OF RAIL AND NUMBER OF JOINTS, 
SPLICES, AND BOLTS FOR EACH MILE OF TRACK. 

TABLE. 


LENGTH OF 
RAIL. 

NO. OF RAILS OR 
JOINTS. 

20 feet 

528 

2 i feet 

503 

22 feet 

480 

23 feet 

459 

24 feet 

440 

25 feet 

422 

26 feet 

406 

27 feet 

39 i 

28 feet 

377 

29 feet 

364 

30 feet 

352 

3 1 feet 

340 

32 feet 

33 o 

33 feet 

320 

34 feet 

319 

35 feet 

302 

36 feet 

292 


NO. OF 
SPLICES. 

NO. OF BOLTS 4 PER 
JOINT. 

1056 

2 112 

1006 

2012 

960 

1920 

918 

1836 

880 

1760 

844 

1688 

812 

1624 

782 

1564 

754 

I 508 

728 

1456 

704 

1408 

680 

1360 

660 

1320 

640 

1280 

620 

I 240 

604 

1208 

584 

I l68 





















MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


357 


20. Table showing the number of pounds of 
iron or steel per yard of rail, the weight of a 
30 foot rail, and the number of tons of iron or 
steel required for one mile of track. 


No. lbs. 

Per Yd. 
of Rail. 

Weight 
of a 30 
ft. Rail. 

Tons of Iron or 
Steel per 

Mile of Track. 

No. los 
Per Yd. 
of Rail 

Weight 
of a 30 
ft. Rail. 

Tons of Iron or 
Steel Per 

Mile of Track. 

5 

50 

TONS. 

8 

LBS. 

1600 

69 

690 

TONS. 

I 2 I 

LBS. 

880 

30 

300 

52 

1600 

7 P 

700 

123 

400 

35 

350 

61 

I 200 

7 i 

710 

I24 

1900 

40 

400 

70 

800 

72 

720 

I 26 

1440 

45 

450 

79 

400 

73 

730 

128 

960 

50 

500 

88 


74 

740 

130 

48O 

5 i 

510 

89 

1520 

75 

750 

132 


52 

520 

9 i 

IO4O 

76 

760 

133 

I 520 

53 

530 

93 

560 

77 

770 

135 

1040 

54 

540 

95 

80 

78 

780 

137 

560 

5 5 

550 

96 

I 600 

79 

790 

139 

80 

56 

560 

98 

I I 20 

80 

800 

I40 

1600 

57 

570 

IOO 

640 

81 

8lO 

142 

I I 20 

5 « 

580 

102 

l60 

82 

820 

I44 

64O 

59 

590 

103 

l680 

83 

830 

146 

I 160 

60 

600 

105 

I 200 

84 

84O 

147 

1680 

61 

6lO 

107 

720 

85 

850 

149 

1200 

62 

620 

109 

64O 

86 

860 

1 5 1 

720 

63 

630 

110 

I 760 

87 

870 

153 

24O 

64 

640 

112 

1280 

88 

880 

1 54 

1760 

65 

650 

114 

SOO 

89 

89O 

156 

1280 

66 

660 

116 

820 

90 

900 

158 

800 

67 

67O 

11 7 

I 84O 

100 

IOOO 

176 


68 

680 

119 

1365 






One pound more or less in weight per yard of 
rail makes a difference of one ton and 1,520 
pounds in the weight per mile. The above table 
will enable any track foreman to see at a glance 
































358 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


the exact amount of iron or steel required per 
mile of track, if he knows the weight per yard 
of rail which he is using, or about to order for 
his division. For smaller amounts than one 
mile (if using 30 foot rails) multiply the number 
of rails required by the weight of rail given in 
second column, and divide by 2,000 pounds to re¬ 
duce to tons. 

21. TABLE 

Showing the Number of Feet, Board Measure, con¬ 
tained in a Piece of Joist, Scantling or 
Timber of the Sizes Given. 


LENGTH IN FEET OF JOISTS. SCANTLING AND TIMBER. 


SIZE IN 

Inches. 

12 

14 

16 

18 

20 

22 

24 

20 

28 

30 

42 

44 

45 

2x 4. 

8 

9 

11 

12 

13 

15 

10 

17 

19 

20 

28 

29 

30 

2x 6 . 

12 

14 

16 

18 

20 

22 

24 

26 

28 

30 

42 

44 

45 

2x 8. 

10 

19 

21 

24 

27 

29 

32 

35 

37 

40 

53 

58 

00 

2x10. 

20 

23 

27 

30 

33 

37 

40 

43 

47 

50 

70 

74 

75 

2x12. 

24 

28 

32 

36 

40 

44 

48 

52 

56 

00 

84 

88 

90 

3x 4. 

12 

14 

10 

18 

20 

22 

24 

20 

28 

30 

42 

44 

45 

3x 6 . 

I8i 

21 

24 

27 

30 

33 

30 

39 

42 

45 

63 

06 

08 

3x 8. 

24 

28 

32 

36 

40 

44 

48 

52 

50 

00 

84 

88 

90 

3x10. 

30 

35 

40 

45 

50 

55 

60 

05 

70 

75 

105 

110 

113 

3x12. 

30 

4i 

48 

54 

00 

00 

72 

78 

84 

90 

120 132 

135 

4x 4. 

10 

19 

21 

24 

27 

29 

32 

35 

37 

40 

50 

58 

00 

4x 6. 

24 

28 

32 

30 

40 

44 

48 

52 

50 

00 

84 

88 

90 

4x 8. 

32 

37 

43 

48 

53 

59 

04 

09 

75 

80 

112 

118 

120 

4x10. 

40 

47 

53 

60 

07 

73 

80 

87 

93 

100 

140 

140 

150 

4x12. 

48 

50 

04 

72 

80 

88 

90 

104 112 

120 

108 

170 

180 

Ox 6. 

36 

42 

48 

54 

00 

66 

72 

78 

84 

90 

120 

132 

135 

Ox 8. 

48 

56 

04 

72 

80 

88 

90 

.104 112 

120 

108 

170 

180 

6x10. 

60 

70 

80 

90 

100 

110 

120 

130 140 

150 

210 

220 

225 

0x12. 

72 

84 

96 

108 

120 

132 

144 

1501168 

180 

250 

265 

270 

8x 8. 

04 

75 

85 

90 

107 

117 

128 

139 

149 

100 

224 

234 

240 

8x10. 

80 

93 

107 

120 133 

147 

100 

173 

187 

200 

280 

294 

300 

8x12. 

96 

112 

128 

144'100 

170 

192 

208 224 

240 

336 

352 

300 

10x10. 

100 117 

133 

150j 167 

183 

200 

217 

233 

250 

350 

306 

375 

10x12. 

120140 

100 

180 200 

220 

240 

200 

280 

300 

420 

440 

450 

12x12. 

144108 

192 

210 240 

264 

288 

312 

330 

360 

504 

528 

500 

12x14. 

108 196 

224 

252 ! 280 

308 

336 

304 

392 

420 

588 

616 630 

14x14 . 

19(i 

i 229 

201 

294] 327 

359 

392 

427 

451 

490 

086 

710,735 

















































































MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


359 


CUBIC MEASURE. 

22. 1,728 cubic inches, one cubic foot; 27 cubic feet one 
yard. 

A perch of masonry is 25 cubic feet. 

A cord of masonry is generally figured at 100 cubic feet. 

Three bushels of lime and one yard of sand will lay a 
cord of stone. 

Two cubic feet of sound dry corn will make' one bushel 
shelled corn. 

There are twenty common bricks to a cubic foot of wall 
when laid. 

Thickness of wall one brick average number per square 
foot '= 14. 

A cubic foot of ice weighs 58 pounds. 

About 500 cubic feet of hay in a mow will weigh a ton. 

.422 cubic feet well settled hay weighs a ton. 

y l / 2 cubic yards of hay and about 12 cubic yards of dry 
clover measured from stacks will weigh a ton. 

A cord of wood is 4 feet high, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, or 
equal to 128 cubic feet. 

SQUARE MEASURE. 

23. 144 square inches 1 square foot, 9 square feet 1 square 
yard, 30^4 square yards 1 square pod, 40 square rods 
1 rood, 40 roods 1 acre. 

surveyor’s measure. 

24. 7.92 inches 1 link, 25 links 1 rod, 4 rods 1 chain, 10 
square chains or 160 square rods 1 acre, 640 acres 1 
square mile. 


LONG MEASURE. 

25. 3 barleycorns 1 inch, 12 inches 1 foot, 3 feet 1 yard, 

5 y 2 yards 1 rod, 40 rods 1 furlong, 8 furlongs 1 mile. 

DRY MEASURE. 

2 pints make 1 quart, 8 quarts 1 peck, 4 pscks make one 
bushel. 





360 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


LIQUID OR WINE MEASURE. 

4 gills make i pint, 2 pints make one quart, 4 quarts make 
one gallon, 31 Lj gallons make one barrel, 2 barrels 
make one hogshead. 

AVORDUPOIS WEIGHT. 

16 drachms make one ounce, 16 ounces make one pound, 
25 pounds make one quarter, 4 quarters make ioo 
weight, 2,000 pounds make 1 ton. 

CIRCULAR MEASURE. 

60 seconds make 1 minute, 60 minutes make one degree, 
30 degress make one sign, go degrees make 1 quadrant, 
4 quadrants or 360 degrees make 1 circle. 

TIME MEASURE. 

60 seconds make one minute, 60 minutes make one hour, 24 
hours make 1 day, 7 days 1 week, 4 weeks 1 lunar 
month, 28, 29, 30, or 31 days make 1 calendar month, 
(30 days make one month in computing interest,) 52 
weeks and 1 day, or 12 calendar months make one year. 



MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


361 


26. SPEED TABLE FOR TRAINS. 


Speed per 
Hour. 

Time of Performing. 

Speed per 
Hour. 

Time of Performing. 

Miles. 

V2 

Mi 1 < 

One Mile. 

Miles. 

1/2 Mile. 

One Mile. 


Min 

. Sec. 

Min. 

Sec 


Min 

Sec. 

Min. 

Sec. 

5 

6 

0 

12 

0 

29 

I 

02 

2 

04 

6 

5 

O 

IO 

0 

30 

I 

0 

2 

0 

7 

4 

17 

8 

34 

31 

0 

58 

I 

56 

8 

3 

45 

7 

30 

32 

0 

56 

I 

52 

9 

3 

20 

6 

40 

33 

0 

54 

I 

49 

10 

3 

0 

6 

0 

34 

0 

53 

I 

46 

11 

2 

43 

5 

27 

35 

0 

5 i 

1 

43 

12 

2 

30 

5 

0 

36 

0 

50 

I 

40 

13 

2 

18 

4 

37 

37 

0 

48 

I 

37 

14 

2 

08 

4 

17 

38 

0 

47 

I 

34 

15 

2 

0 

4 

0 

39 

0 

46 

I 

32 

16 

1 

52 

3 

45 

40 

0 

45 

I 

30 

17 

1 

46 

3 

3 1 

4 f 

0 

43 

I 

27 

18 

1 

40 

3 

20 

42 

0 

42 

I 

25 

19 - 

1 

34 

3 

09 

43 

0 

4 i 

I 

23 

20 

1 

30 

3 

0 

44 

0 

40 

I 

21 

21 

1 

25 

2 

5 i 

45 

0 

40 

I 

20 

22 

1 

21 

2 

43 

46 

0 

39 

I 

18 

23 

1 

18 

2 

36 

47 

0 

38 

I 

16 

24 

1 

15 

2 

30 

48 

0 

37 K 

I 

15 

25 

1 

12 

2 

24 

49 

0 

3 6 K 

I 

13 K 

26 

1 

09 

2 

18 

50 

0 

36 

I 

12 

2 7 

1 

06 

2 

13 

55 

0 

32 H 

I 

05 ^2 

28 

1 

04 

2 

08 

60 

0 

30 

1 

0 


The speed per hour which any train is making 
may be ascertained by simply counting the num¬ 
ber of rail joints which the train passes o\er in 
20 seconds of time. If the track rails are 3 ° 
feet long, the number of joints passed in 20 
seconds, is always very nearly the speed in miles 
p er hour. 
































Table of Wages on Bases of 10 Hours per Day. 


362 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


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Table of Wages on Bases of 10 Hours per Day.-Continued. 


MISCELLANEOUS—TABLES. 


363 




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28. Table showing the Amount of Wages due for any Number of Days Work to 30 Days,from 1 cent to ®2 per 


364 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. 


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ADVERTISEMENTS. 


365 



(FRED C. WEIR, President.) 

CINCINNATI, OHIO. 

Manufacturers of the 

Latest Approved Appliances for 


Illustrations ana Insets between 
pages 160 and 161 in this book 
are from devices manu¬ 
factured by us. 


If we have not sent you our Catalogue 
v rite us tor a copy. 


THE WEIR FROG 60 ., 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 


.A. del ress 










Weir frog fo., e,r 'fineinnati, 


366 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 





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£ J2 -UJ 
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SAMPLE BRACES FURNISHED TO RAILROAD 

























ADVERTISEMENTS. 


367 


The Stanford PatentTrack Jack. 

PATENTED FEBRUARY 17 th, 1885 . AUGUST 3rd, 1886 . 



In explanation of the construction 'and operation of the Stanford 
Track Jack, we show above cut. The weight is raised by the action of a 
Lever in connection with two Friction Clutches acting alternately. The 
Upper or Lifting Clutch serves to lift the load and the Lower Clutch to 
support it while the Lifting Clutch is lowered for a new lift. In case of 
wear, Packing Plates of Tin or Sheet Iron can be inserted by taking out 
Screw on top of Clutch Boxes—this will tighten the Clutches. 

What Railroad Men Say Who Have Used the Jack. 


The Stanford Track Jack sent me for trial. I find to be an excellent 
Track Jack, far superior to any I have ever used. It is both quick and 
durable, and I can recommend it as a first-class jack tool. 


In regard to the Stanford Track Jack, I can say, I am using them in 
yards and they give perfect satisfaction, and are the best lever used. 
On a section it saves the labor of one man. 


I have thoroughly tested the different Track Jacks sent me for trial, 
and find the Stanford to be by far the best I have ever used. 


The Stanford Track Jack has been thoroughly tested on this division 
since last spring by all gangs of men employed in raising and ballasting 
track, and I hear nothing but words of praise. for them. I think they 
are the best Track Jack I ever saw or used. 


MANUFACTURED AND SOLD EXCLUSIVELY BY 

CO., 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. 
















3 68 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER. . 




“VIEIROLT_iL TOOL ‘WORKS, 

Manufacturers of 

The ©elGloreited. 

V (->rc-)i-ic'i X i'i 11 <-)(' k. 

©v<?r ©©0,000 m ©so! 

On the best railroads, and admitted to be the 
best, simplest and most efficient device for secur¬ 
ing an elastic tight joint. 


Track Chisels, Claw Bars, Spike Mauls, Picks, Track 
Wrenches, Lining, Tamping and Pinch Bars, 
Rail Tongs, Forks, Etc., Etc., forged 
from the best steel, especially 
for track service. 


^°SEND FOR OUR ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE. 


PITTSBURGH, PA. 

7th Ave. and Liberty Street. 


CHICAGO. ILL. 

22 and 24 W. Lake Street 








ADVERTISEMENTS 


369 



Estimates and Oiher Information 
Furnished cn Application. 


ffi 

P^5*i—B5 - x 


1 /] 

I 



i f [ 

gwiPk ■ 


Manufactured tc Oct, 1, 1890: Crossings, 2,334; Frogs, 29,116. 

Our Stiff Rail Frogs and Crossings are 
made with Solid Wrought Iron Frames. 

Address, EAST ST. LOUIS, ILL. 




























































370 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER 



Sheffield Velocipede Car Co. 

Three Rivers, Mich, 


Manufacturers of 

Improved Section Hand Cars, Push Cars and Velocipede 
Cars, of the highest degree of efficiency for track and 
inspection work, and in all desirable styles. 


ALSO SOLE MANUFACTURERS OF 

Dodge Railroad Stand Pipe, both Plain and Automatic. 

Correspondence Solicited. 



lightest ydoeipede in use 
in the World. 





























ADVERTISEMENTS. 


37 1 



WITH IIMIEI^OTTEID SOCKETS. 

Our Culvert Pipe is made of selected material, expressly tor rail¬ 
road use. It is much thicker, heavier and stronger than the Standard 
Sewer pipe In general use, and is now in use on over One Hu ndred 
Railroads in this country. BLACKMER Sc POST, 

325 Chestnut St: St. Louis. 

N. B. The improvement in sockets is a very important one. Send 
for circular illustrating same. 


























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































i~2 


THE TRACKMAN'S HELPER. 



St. IMTo., 


©2 


jTastenings, 



Belts * eipiel & Spliees. 


























ADVERTISEMENTS. 


3-3 






♦ ' 


, 



GOLDIE PEP 

IFECT 



1 

1 


RAILROAD 

SPIRE 


I IN I 


SOFT STEEL 


IS THE 


•a. 

Strongest and Most Durable 

Spike in the World. 


Owing to the Clipped Pointit is More Easily started 
and Driven than the common spike and 
We Guarantee it will not 
Turn in Driving. 


WORT 




J 


TER & Co. Ld. 


Pittsburg, - - - - ,Penn. 

. ' v ’ t 

RAILROAD, STREET RAILWAY AND BOAT SPIKES. 















































Send for CATALOGUE Giving Full 
Descriptions to 

30 ‘qm,» ©RiDitpyiD * & * so. 


37^ 


THE TRACKMAN S HELPER. 



ROAD MASTERS 

Who Require for Their Track Work a 


TRACKJACK 



COMBINING THE ADVANTAGES OF 

DURABILITY, 


SURE GRIP, 


POWER, 


AND 


INSTANTANEOUS TRIP 


Will find all these 
Points Combined Perfectly 
In our Nos. 38 and 3D 

Or*i;p Track Jacks 

As Here Illustrated. 

























ADVERTISEMENTS. 


37 : > 


30i/d>E, <s? dl^IDL-R^D & * (30. 


DAYTON, O., 



MANUFACTURERS OF 

J. O. JOYCE’S PATENT 

LEVER JACES, 

CCZMTIF’O'CriTID LEVHR 

SCREW JACKS, 

ANI) 

BENCH VISES. 

Over Sixty Varieties ancl Sizes 

-OF- 


LEVER - AND - SCREW - JACKS, 

Mostly for Railroad Use. 

ILLUSTRATED CAPALOGUE 

MAILED ON APPLICATION. 















































































V/-* 
















































ADVERTISEMENTS. 


377 


theR ailway A oe 

^ i. ■■ i 

IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY AT - ** ■ ' 


CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 


-BY- 


THE RAILWAY AGE PUBLISHING Co. 


E. H. TALBOTT, .PRESIDENT, NEW YORK. 

H. R. HOBART, .VICE-PRESIDENT, CHICAGO. 


Communications and news 
for the Editorial Depart- 
@ ment,including exchanges, 

should he addressed to 
Chicago ill., No. 205 La 
Salle Str< et. 


Personal calls for informa¬ 
tion. or on business, will 
receive piompt attention at 
either the Chicago or New 
York office,as may be most 
convenient, and visitors 
will be cordially welcomed 

» 


Corresponde ce respecting 
advertisements, subscrip¬ 
tions and other matters 
(|i) intended for the business 

department, should be ad¬ 
dressed to New York, No. 
]f> Wall Street. 


SUBSCRIPTION IN ADVANCE, POSTAGE FREE, 

One Year, $4-; Six Months, $2; Single Copies, loc. 

£3F“Please remit in New York draft, money order, or registered letter. 
We cannot use local checks, except at a discount of 25 cents, the bank 
charge for collection. 

Contributed articles on the various topics connected directly or indi¬ 
rectly with railroading, reports, information of changes in railway offi¬ 
cers, of newly organized roads, improvements, exj eriments, earnings, 
operating expenses, personal items relating to railway officials, etc., ear¬ 
nestly solicited. 


ADVERTISING MANAGERS: 


EASTERN DEPARTMENT, 

J. W. Nagle. 15 Wall St . New York. 
425 Walnut St.. Philada. 


WESTERN DEPARTMENT, 

R. D. Owens, No. 205 La Salle St. 
Chicago. 


The RAILWAY AGE has the largest circulation amongst railway ofli. 
cers genreally ol any railway journal published in the United States. 














3*8 


THE TRACKMAN’S HELPER.- 


The Railway Service Gazette, 


-o-o'.^OO- 

America’s Railway Track Journal, 

•v * i 

The pages of which teem with 
matter of the greatest interest to 
every official and employe of the 
railway track department. 


Terms of Subscription: 


ONE YEAR, $2.00. 

I SIX MONTHS, $ 1 . 00 . 


Liberal Commission to Agents. 


Address Railway Service Gazette, 199 Huron 
St., Toledo, Ohio, Wm. R. Leflet, Editor. 


Keep Yourself Posted on all Railroad 
Subjects by reading the Service Gazette. 










ADVERTISEMENTS. 


37^ 


THE 

ROADMASTER AND SECTION FOREMAN. 


p-UBlilSELED PvdZoiNTTBIL-Sr, 
$1.00 3P.E.K, Teab. 


S’- -A-. SMITE;, ------- Eiltcr. 

E3- S- - - ^u^sixxes^ 3^sLiia.^ejr. 


SMITH & WASSON, Publishers, 
Chicago, • Illinois. 


Remittances. —All remittances should be 


made by Express Money Orders, Post-office 
Orders, Postal Note or Registered Letter. 












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